I also find it interesting how most of the articles I've read on the Durbin ammendment fail to highlight the fact that interchange is only one component of a merchant's fees. Forget cornering your provider, if your provider does not proactively adjust your rates accordingly I would consider contacting another provider. Especially a provider that will assign you a personal account manager, not a company that just sells you on the service, and then pawns you off to a (800) customer service number.

It does seem prudent to mention that Interchange is usually but one component of the cost of a debit transaction for a merchant. There certainly does exist the possibility of merchants benefiting from Durbin and passing those along to consumers, but there are some whose acquirers are going to opt not to pass those savings along to them. A typical cost formula looks something like this, as I'm sure you know: Interchange + auth/switch fees + surcharge = cost of transaction for merchant. Although the Interchange component may now be capped, the other 2 are not and could potentially be raised, offsetting Durbins anticipated savings for the merchant. It takes that money away from the issuers but transfers it to another within the payment ecosystem, and there appears to be a trend building in this direction by more than a few companies in the industry. Couple this with the ending of many bank sponsored (issuers) benefit programs like free checking and the like, and this is liable to go down as yet another government backed debacle with no real winners. Being in the industry I'll admit my view is probably biased, but thought this worth mentioning. To any merchants reading this I would definitely PIN your merchant services provider down on what their plans are post Durbin, and make sure they intend to at least keep any surcharges as is and not raise them.