A New Take On Debit Card Fees

Visa, Using Fees To Dominate a Market - NYTimes.com: 
"Every day, millions of Americans stand at store checkout counters and make a seemingly random decision: after swiping their debit card, they choose whether to punch in a code, or to sign their name.
It is a pointless distinction to most consumers, since the price is the same either way. But behind the scenes, billions of dollars are at stake.
When you sign a debit card receipt at a large retailer, the store pays your bank an average of 75 cents for every $100 spent, more than twice as much as when you punch in a four-digit code."

Even at my age, I find you can learn something new.

I switched from Credit Cards to one Debit Card many years ago. I got tired of the fees charged to both me and the merchants, and all the other problems associated with them. So I was quite surprised when I read this article about how all the fees are still there, only now they are being paid by the merchants and the banks. As the article points out we are talking big bucks here.

I will never understand why the merchants don't just give discounts to cash customers and save themselves some money. That way they would also have some leverage with the banks and card companies over rates, now they seem to have nothing to bargain with.

Update: The NYT article seems to be making the rounds among bargain hunter blogs. Sue Stock's News and Observer consumer blog has a post entitled  The Deal On Debit Cards. It has some interesting observations on the subject, so give Sue some traffic and take a look at what she has to say.