Visa, Mastercard may allow retailers to charge customers more to use credit card in lawsuit settleme

[Swede Atlanta]

29. I disagree with your premise that it is the GREEDY retail stores......

that are trying to charge the consumer more.

A business has various costs - inventory, staff, utilities, insurance, retail space and the cost of providing a convenient method of payment for their customers.

Credit card companies milk both sides of the credit card payment. They charge the retails up to as much as 6% (believe Amex charges that for some retailers) and then charge interest to the cardholders on balances. I don't have any statistics but I would assume that most cardholders carry at least some balance.

So, let's say a business prices a shirt at $50.00. That price must cover the cost of the inventory and all of the other costs including the cost of the payment transaction.

Let's assume the credit card rate is 3%. The store incurs a cost of $1.50 for every shirt they sell. Let's say they sell 20 shirts a day. That is $30.00 simply to accept credit cards for the convenience of the customer.

I have always maintained that merchants should be able to charge more for credit card transactions. The charge should not be excessive but should compensate them for the additional cost including administrative charges.