Choice questions ‘shadowy’ new banking ad campaign ‘Don’t Change My Interchange’
Consumer rights body Choice is questioning who is behind a new ad campaign, opposing proposed Reserve Bank of Australia’s plans to remove the EFTPOS interchange fees, labelling the campaign as “shadowy” and warning that the campaign, which appears to be bank industry funded, may oversimplify the issue.
The ‘Don’t Change My Interchange’ campaign, which is “supported” by an organisation called the International Alliance for Electronic Payments, is fighting against the RBA’s plans to remove the EFTPOS interchange fee, which is a fee a business pays a bank so it can accept a credit card and debit payments, arguing the removal of it will hurt consumers.
Speaking to Mumbrella, Choice campaigns manager Erin Turner said: “What I find very interesting about the ‘Don’t Change the Interchange’ campaign is I can’t even tell who’s behind it
Where are these campaign running? I have not seen them before. I still find it odd that we can do complex things such as digital video and voice over IP for free, but transferring ‘digital’ money from one ‘digital place’ to another ‘digital/virtual’ place still costs money.
Only in Australia: banks claiming reducing fees will hurt consumers.
US: Land of the Free
AU: Land of the credit card surcharge
Anonymous: to be fair, the US is *far* worse than Australia for bank fees and credit card services, even though we’re way behind the rest of the developed world.
Google took me directly to their contact details.
http://mycardmatters.com/en/about/
If anyone doubted that modern advertising was propaganda, look no further. The agency is registered in Georgia, USA, and runs other campaigns such as “keep the EU out of your wallet”. It’s always the same with these multinationals, use the “government is bad” argument to convince people to vote and act against their own interests.
Frankly, I’m sick and tired of PR spin merchants (for corporate, political or other clients) playing us all for mugs.