Think of the debit card as the new cash.  The vast majority of retailers across the United States and abroad are now equipped to accept your debit card as a form of payment for purchases, which makes things much simpler when you’re out and about shopping.

But not all retail merchant account credit card processing companies are alike, which means that in some cases, you’ll pay for swiping that debit (or credit) card, in order to cover the fees the retailer is likely being charged by the credit card companies themselves, the credit card companies, and sometimes even your own financial institution or bank.

Transaction fees are used to cover the costs of the terminal used to dial in, either through phone lines or online (the Internet), to determine whether your customer has the funds to pay for the transaction.  These rates charged for merchant account processing can fall between 25 cents and 40 cents per transactions, depending on the amount of purchase and other factors.

Other fees can include fees for over use (accepting a higher number of transactions using debit or credit cards); late fees; overdraft fees; monthly statements; discount rates and fees to cover debit card or credit card processing online.

So, the next time you get that message on a terminal screen asking you to accept the $1.50 fee to continue your transaction, you may not like it, and you may not chose to continue, but if you do, you can at least process what you know about these merchant fees before deciding.