Small business and their customers will be absorbing an estimated 20% increase in transaction fee to be imposed by MasterCard this year. MasterCard has announced it will increase the fees, paid for by businesses when they swipe your card, now set generally between 1.7 to 3.5 per cent of the cost of each purchase. These rates already are the second highest rate in the world. Richard Truscott of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business is quoted as saying it will be the consumers who bear the brunt of the increase. “Consumers should realize the businesses pay those fees but they will pass it along to clients and consumers in the form of higher prices,” says Truscott. “So the public is paying for those fees in large measure.”
