"We've paid more in credit card fees than we've made in profits in our entire company in recent years," he said. "Overall we probably pay, depending on how good the business is, between $50,000 and $100,000 a year in credit card payments." -

Several years ago I was researching the cost/benefit of starting a particular online business. When I realized that over 30% of my overhead expenses were going to be credit card processing fees I decided it was not a profitable business to start. There is no good way for a small business to be profitable and accept credit cards as it's only source or payment. The fees are freaking insane!

"with merchants forced for years to fork over ever higher fees to process the credit cards their customers use, driving up costs for consumers." - So really you mean consumers forked over, not merchants. For years I've seen the tags in stores, online, at the pump, about higher cost if you use a credit card, or credit cards not for purchases under X. People have been paying this, and even with this decision justice has not been served as we are still out of hope, and the money we lost to these predators. I don't think we should be acting like everything has been set right here, it's just another day in a very dangerous jungle where citizens have had their defenses stripped from them by party politicians.

Hennepin County doesn't accept payment via Visa because the fees are too high. Another example of how big businesses game the system to their favor.

Another example of the huge fines large corporations gladly settle for. If politicians worked for us, their constituents, maybe things would change. All they look out for now are the entities that contribute to their campaigns.

I never thought I would support the views of the banking industry, but retailers do not have to accept credit cards. They can accept checks and deal with the NSF headaches. Or they can offer financing and deal with deadbeats. This is the service that credit card companies and banks relieve retailers from having to do. Credit cards spur sales from consumers that would pass on if they had to pay with cash. Retailers all know this as evidenced by the lack of retailers which do not accept credit cards.

There's no doubt that VISA and Mastercard have created, but also monopolized the electronic card payment industry, mostly unregulated! And Big Banks, who supply these merchant services, have also profited greatly at the expense of small merchants and you and I, the consumer. But regarding merchant payment system providers, there IS competition out there besides the BIG Banks for merchants to control costs. Big Banks are "fee-based" for almost all services. With the HUGE increase in electronic card pmts over the past 20 years, merchants HAVE to accept these cards to operate. Just another example that Big Banks and Wall Street can't (or won't) regulate themselves ... all at the expense of small business and the consumer! And the Republicans actually want to DE-regulate Wall Street???? We saw the results of deregulation in the 2000's, but STILL some people are gullible enough to fall for the Republican rhetoric!! Amazing!

Merchants better watch out. Right now the agreements they signed with credit card companies state the merchant cannot up charge the fees to customers. If credit card companies decide that is no longer in their best interest - a lot of merchants will have to start handling a LOT of cash including counting, storing, depositing, and reporting large cash deposits to the government as currently required, as customers decide to pay with cash. Personally, I always ask for a discount for cash on large purchases and can usually get at least 2.5% discount. Then one has to weight the cash discount versus the rewards on the credit card. Of course, consumers should NEVER charge more than they can pay off each month to reduce the card balance to zero. Once you start paying credit card companies that hefty interest charge you are sunk. Remember; credit card companies make their real money on the finance charges not on the transaction fees.

juggler and merkin complain about the cost of accepting credit cards from customers as somehow unfair alluding that something needs to be done about the high fees. So what would be a "fare" fee for a company helping consumers conveniently purchasing goods. 1) This is an unsecured loan to consumers that you cannot totally vet before granting them credit. 2) The transactions are highly susceptible to fraud meaning the company cannot collect. 3) The consumers have little to no exposure if they leave the credit card on a restaurant table and someone picks it up and runs up $5,000 in charges in 5 hours. 4) The consumer can "charge back" purchases they made for up to several months after a purchase if they feel the goods or service were not represented properly. Etc. Etc. Etc.

With today's technology, accepting checks isn't as risky as it used to be. WalMart, for example, runs your check through, and the amount is immediately deducted from your account - eliminating the possibility of NSF. The fee is far less than credit/debit card processing. Other businesses "preauthorize" checks. Meaning - they run the check through a MICR reader, and a hold is put on the funds at your bank until the check shows up. That doesn't cost anything except for the machine to read checks. I always get discounts. I offer cash instead of plastic, and I shave 2 to 3 percent off the price when I pay cash.

Why do I have the feeling that, once all the appeals are done and the lawyers are paid off, the tiny rebate that businesses will get won't ever be passed on to the consumer? Instead, it will be used "to keep our prices low." Until next month, when prices will go up again.