17 April 2013 (10:20 UTC-07 Tango)/06 Jumada t-Tania 1434/28 Farvardin 1391/08 Bing-Chen (3rd month) 4711

Recently I was told by a Spanish small business owner I know, that he had to stop taking credit card payments because of a huge increases in fees being charged to small businesses.

He said the outrageous fee hikes involve VISA, MasterCard and American Express.  Turns out that MasterCard is actually being investigated for violating the European Union’s anti-trust laws.

According to EU investigators, MasterCard has jacked up fees on purchases involving cardholders living outside the EU.  Here in the U.S. credit card companies already charge cardholders extra fees for making purchases outside the United States, so it seems they’re now charging business owners in Europe extra fees for international sales as well.

MasterCard officials blamed banks for issuing cards with higher fee rates, but then said “….MasterCard always aims to balance the interests of both consumers and retailers to ensure that each party pays its fair share of the costs…”

You mean those outrageous interest rates aren’t enough to cover your costs, MasterCard?   “Fair share” my ass!

MasterCard also said the higher fees were the only way the company could remain “viable”.

VISA is also being investigated.  VISA is the biggest credit card scammer, I mean credit card service provider in the EU.  It too has created outrageous ‘cross-border’ purchaser/seller fees.

What those dumb ass highly educated credit card corporate officials don’t realize is the net effect of continuing to create new fees, and jack up existing fees and interest rates, is that it will greatly reduce credit card use, which could render them inviable.