Credit Card Mania

Is the credit/debit card already replacing cash as the standard method of payment? Maybe not yet, but there are indications here in the U.S. that cash may soon be a thing of the past. Because customers now want to make even the smallest charges with their plastic, Visa, Master Card and other credit card companies are working hard to convince merchants to let them do it. as one reluctant business owner, Marcia Levi of Manhattan's Chocolate Moose store said, People come in and charge $2.25 for a card or $1.75 for jelly beans.
It's annoying. In the past two years, they've just whipped out the card without thinking about it, no matter how small the purchase. The problem for merchants is that each time a customer uses his or her credit card, the merchant must pay a few for the transaction. banks assess retailers fixed and variable fees per credit card transaction, so those small charge purchases by the consumer are not profitable for the merchant.
Yet credit card companies benefit from any purchase and they now pressure retailers to accept any amount of purchase made with the card. To get them to go to a cash less society the card companies are wooing the merchants by lowering fees they charge them. they also began making better use of technologies that speed up the processing and have said card users no longer have to sign for many purchases.
It's working. Just look at the number of people who download songs on the internet for 99 cents and use their credit cards to pay. Credit card and debit card purchases of items costing less than $5 totaled $13.5 billion last year, more than 3 times as much as 4 years ago. Charges on items costing less than $10 climbed to $35.45 billion last year, an increase of six fold.
Even McDonald's allows customers to charge the cost of a cheeseburger or ice cream cone. Soon, the paper currency and coins we all are used to may be a thing of the past.
Hmmmmmm No more "flipping a coin" to settle a dispute between kids. How does one flip a credit card?