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Clark Howard's Tips

Credit cards boosting merchant fees

July 18, 2005

When you go to a store or restaurant and use your credit card, there is a fee that the merchant pays on each transaction.

And, credit card companies have been pushing up those fees, which are ultimately passed on to you.

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Some have accused the credit cards of price fixing, and Visa is the company under the gun right now.

Visa started a "prestige" card called "Signature Visa" that has even higher merchant fees.

Visa and Master Card set the price on those merchant fees, which some consider to be price fixing. The matter has now moved to the courts, and it'll take a while before we know if the company has done something really wrong.

You may want to check what the merchant fees are on certain cards.

It won't help a lot, but it's nibbling at the problem. And if you think it's free to use your credit card, think again.

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