Like many of you watching this video, I've made a decent amount of money from credit card points and Miles I've used a lot of the benefits, but soon all of that could be coming to an end. This is because the Congress is right now voting on a bill to eliminate all the funding for popular credit card reward programs and this includes your cash back and travel points. Now this bill here is called the Marshall Durbin Interchange Bill and it's named after two senators: Dick Durbin of Illinois and Senator Roger Marshall of Kansas. So this bill was first introduced back in July of 2022, but it's finally underway and there is a chance that it could pass if this bill passes.

Large retailers could process credit card transactions based solely on what is cheapest for them without regarding any value of consumer rewards and other benefits. This bill could also reduce the credit availability that people like us have because credit card companies would begin to make less on those interchange fees, which is at one to two percent that retailers and Merchants have to pay to the credit card companies whenever we swipe our card. Now if you guys are followers of this channel, you'll know what interchange fees are, but I know it's a little confusing. so let me break it down easier here.

So say as an example: I go to Starbucks I Go ahead and use my built MasterCard I swipe my card I use it I get my Starbucks drink when I use it Starbucks actually has to pay a one to two percent transaction fee for me using my card. The beauty of interchange fees is that it funds this pool that pretty much gives us all the benefits that we see whenever we're using these credit cards. Now this bill here is trying to limit those interchange fees and the reason why this would be so backwards for us is just because this is what is funding the pool for all of our benefits. and if credit card companies start getting Limited in the revenue that they're getting, we would start seeing the benefits towards us getting cut down if you didn't really know how much credit card companies return back in dollar amounts to people using them.

In a study done back in 2020, it was estimated that credit card Rewards paid out roughly 60 billion dollars to Consumers of all income levels helping working class families travel, people like us, being able to earn additional rewards and putting just additional money back in the pockets of the people. Now the original Durbin Amendment had actually passed back in 2010 and instead it was actually called the Dodd-Frank Act What's really most interesting about this is we've already seen the repercussions of a bill very similar to the one that we're seeing right now getting worked in Congress to how it negatively affected us, the consumers. This is because originally we actually saw this getting affected into the debit card. Market when Banks start to see that Revenue plummet for The Interchange fees through their merchants started to decrease.

We the people are the ones that begin to lose the cash back benefits that we had from debit cards. Now debit cards don't really give too many benefits at all and even things such as overdraft protection you have to pay additional dollars for. You might not remember this, but back about a decade ago, before that Bill had passed, A lot of debit cards offered cash back benefits similar to what credit cards offered today. Now all that quickly ended when those interchange fees were reduced.

On top of that, a bill like this passing could also mean the end of co-branded credit cards. Some cards that come to mind for me is like the world of hide the Hilton lineup of cards any of the Marriott Bonvoy cards. All of those could get scaled back. Basically long story short, a reduction in Revenue would reduce the amount of availability in co-branded cards.

It would decrease the competition and it would lessen the options that we have in the cards that we can apply for now. I Do need to mention that the whole purpose of this bill is to reduce those interchange fees so that Merchants can have a little bit more money and that the power is balanced just because. American Express Visa Mastercard These are some of the merchants that pretty much hold a majority of the market pie now. I Can't really complain because it is these same issuers that have paid us out so much and has given the money back to us consumers.

So pretty much what this bill is trying to do is reallocate the money from our pockets from a lot of these bigger companies that are the ones that are paying out the rewards like the credit card. Merchants To the retailers. there's a false hope right now that if this bill does get passed and then money starts going back into some of the bigger retail companies like Walmart Target Amazon is that they would pass along those savings to us. But we've seen historically that a lot of the nation's largest retail and e-commerce platforms end up just pocketing the savings and they just increase their price.

At the end of the day, it would be us consumers left with higher prices that we're paying on goods and less credit card rewards. Now out of all that, ladies and gents, I do need to mention that there is still some good news. There is still some light at the tunnel because this is not the first time credit card rewards have been under threat even back in 2017. I Had found an article published by Forbes titled credit card rewards come under threat.

So long cash Back in here they talked about the same issue where there's this battle over interchange fees and how the competition set by Visa Mastercard and American Express was still under fire. Going to the question that is probably on everyone's mind: Brian Can credit card reward points disappear And if so, what do I do? Should I cash them out now? Simple answer: Yes Yes to the part that credit card rewards could One Day end but I wouldn't cash him out just yet. Although this could happen in the future, the chances of this happening is still fairly Slim in my opinion with Republicans currently in charge I Do think that we have a bit more protection over this bill not getting passed, but you never know what could happen until it's too late. This video here is more of an awareness and wake-up call to realize that this stuff has always been under dispute.

If you ever thought credit card reward points are too good to be true, the cash back you earn is too good to be true, it might just be. So there are always going to be these forces acting against it where they're trying to take away these type of benefits that have helped so many people and change the lives of thousands upon thousands. Now there's nothing that I need you guys to do in this video other than to have awareness about this. Tell your local lawmakers to oppose the Durbin Marshall credit card routing Bill Share this video with people so that there is more awareness and remember that's what what it starts with awareness because I almost guarantee not many people know what's actually happening underneath the scenes.

I Also found a few websites that you guys could also learn more in just how you could support being against this type of build. There's a website called Votervoice.net where you can compose your message to the U.S Senators where you can oppose this type of legislative action. and even more than that. I Also found a website called Cardcoalition.org and this one's really interesting.

This one is a team built by some of the largest banks and institutions, starting with Ally Discover, City Wells Fargo and even American Express Bank of America and more. It's stated that even a lot of these other banks are right now working towards fair and legal rights and regulations. Again, some of these bills getting passed as great as it is for a lot of the banks to try and protect themselves, we also have to make sure that we're doing our part so that we don't get some of these amazing things. Stripped Away So that's all that I have for you guys today.

Stay protected, stay blessed. And let's make sure that things like this do not get past.