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Credit card fees add up for small businesses

At a time when many small-business owners are struggling to make ends meet, rising credit and debt transaction fees are making the costs of doing business that much more difficult.

But banks and credit card companies are saying these fees are paying for valuable services.

The fees which can be up to 3 percent of the total purchase price eventually hit consumers' wallets as retailers look to cover the cost of extending the service of taking plastic payment.

The fees in question are called ";merchant discount fees"; and ";interchange fees,"; and there is a difference between the two.

Interchange reimbursement fees are what a retailer's bank or merchant services provider pays credit card companies for processing card transactions. Merchant fees are those paid by the retailer to the bank or other institution they've contracted with to process credit and debit card transactions   Read Full Article...