Originally Posted by
stellertony
Interesting...I know a lot of businesses around here, especially small local ones like in a mall food court, won't accept credit cards for purchases under a certain amount (usually $8 or $10).
This is because there is a per transaction charge as well as a percentage bite on the transaction. Before you push too hard on this keep in mind that the small guys often just don't have the margin to eat the credit card charges on small transactions. My local newstand went out of business not so long ago, in part, because of credit card issues.
The card companies are an oligopoly (from which some, e.g., FTers profit). They maintain very high charges from the lack of competition in the market, competition which they restrict. The small merchants are getting hit hard by this.