Interchange Fees and the Export of Credit Card Debt

If you're unaware of Interchange Fees, they're the fee charged to the retailer by the credit card system, such as Visa or Mastercard and are mostly based on a percentage. I read somewhere that for gas, they increase up to $50 in gas and don't increase for higher amounts. These fees increase prices at the stores and reduce profits significantly as the retailer loses for every purchase.

A few years ago there was a lawsuit between the above and retailers; when you enter a pin# the charge to the retailer is reduced because that system charges far less than the others. Visa and Mastercard wanted retailers to continue with their old, more expensive, offline system with signatures. It costs more and doesn't happen in real time.

Now, in addition to exporting trans-fats, the US has successfully exported credit card debt to consumers the world over; granted, in part it's due to the embracing of credit cards by less sophisticated banking systems that didn't take into account minor details like income and credit rating...not all countries have historically embraced debt so their infrastructure hasn't included credit ratings.