Why is it all the little mom and pop stores seem to have a fee to use a debit card or credit card to purchase something. As far as I understand you can charge a fee for a debit card, but not a credit card. If the merchant runs it as Debit than you must punch in your PIN number into a keypad. When it's run as credit then you sign your name on the receipt. That's basically the quick way to tell the difference.

So any time you sign for a purchase they really aren't allowed to charge any kind of fee.

Now I don't know how many times I've been to one of these stores and they tell me there is a $.50 or $1.00 fee to use my Debit Card. Some of them even have a sign posted, or they point that out to you.

What really gets me is they tell you there is a fee to use your Debit Card. Then, they run the darn thing as Credit where I have to sign, which is not allowed.

I really wish some organization would crack down on this excessive out of hand problem. I am getting really tired of all these fees.

I have a feeling Visa or MasterCard wouldn't do much about it anyway if one complained. It's big business for them and they don't want to take away the merchants account.

Maybe these little convenience mom and pop stores just aren't educated, or never read the rules and terms of service or something.

Generally I find that it is the smaller stores and businesses that tend to do charge fees more often than the bigger or national chain stores.

I just wish that something could be done about this. I can only imagine how much I spend in a year in these bogus fees!