Electronic payments, which are the payments submitted over a card network (e.g. Visa, MasterCard, etc.) or over the ACH system made up more than 75 percent of all non-cash American credit card processing payments by count and more than 50 percent by amount in 2009. The number of electronic transactions rose by 9.3 percent on average a year from 2006 to 2009. The ratio of electronic payments to total non-cash transactions increased from 67.9 percent to 77.6 percent for the examined period. The total number of electronic payments increased by 6.0 percent a year, jumping from 45.1 percent in 2006 to 56.3 percent in 2009.

More than a half (60 percent) of all non-cash American credit card processing transactions in 2009 were placed with debit, prepaid or credit cards, comprising 4.8 percent of the aggregate. In contrast, ACH transactions made up 17.5 percent of non-cash payments and 51.4 percent of the total volume. The number of ACH transactions rose by 9.4 percent a year from 2006 to 2009, up from 14.6 billion items in 2006 to 19.1 billion in 2009. Intermediary information show that ACH growth slowly decelerated: the number of ACH items increased more rapidly early in the 3-year period than at the end. ACH payments in 2009 exceeded the ones in 2006 by 4.5 billion. The number of cashed checks in 2009 (3.3 billion) was bigger than the one in 2006 (2.6 billion) but dropped from 17.7 percent to 17.3 percent of total ACH payments. ACH American credit card processing payments were $37.2 trillion dollars in 2009, 20.0 percent higher than the $31.0 trillion calculated in 2006. In 2009 ACH comprised 51.4 percent of the total amount of all non-cash payments, up from only 40.9 in 2006. The total of ACH transactions in 2009 was $6.2 trillion higher than in 2006, while the aggregate amount of non-cash payments came to $3.5 trillion lower in 2009 than in 2006. Credit cards were the only electronic payment method to register a fall in use from 2006 to 2009 (a drop of 0.2 percent a year on average). There were 21.6 billion credit card payments in 2009, 151 million under the number measured in 2006. By amount, credit card transactions totaled $1.9 trillion in 2009, down from the $2.1 trillion calculated in 2006. This fall in credit card usage may have been a result of the economic recession and may not necessarily point to permanent changes in the financial behavior of consumers and American credit card processing businesses. To give you an idea, the rate of consumer revolving debt in the U.S. increased in every month from January 2006 to its highest level measured in August 2008, before declining in each of the following months through November 2010. Debit card transactions sustained their double-digit increase from 2006 to 2009 and comprised 34.8 percent of all non-cash transactions in 2009 (2.0 percent by amount). Total debit card payments jumped by 14.8 percent per year during the evaluated period.

Credit card payment processing account users are required to accept all card brands stated in their merchant agreements for payment for products and services sold, or for donations (for non-profits) at their locations. Retailers are not permitted to:

• State or otherwise indicate that they prefer, in one form or another, any given bank card over another one.
• Try to persuade consumers not to pay by a given card.
• Criticize a credit card company or one of their programs or services.
• Attempt to convince or prompt a customer to make payment by any other payment form (for example cash or check), instead of a card of their preference.
• Impose any impediments, restrictions, disadvantages or additional charges when a card is offered that are not equally levied on all other payment forms, with the exception of cash, ACH funds transfer and cash.
• Participate in activities that damage the business or the credit card payment processing companies and brands.
• Promote any given card (except the store's own private label card that is used solely at their locations) more strenuously than the merchant promotes the other brands.

Merchants are permitted to promote discounts from their regular prices for payments in by check, in cash or by direct ACH transfers, as long as they have clearly stated the terms of such promotions (including the everyday and rebate prices) to customers and that any discount provided is equally applicable to users of all card brands.

Anytime a payment type is communicated to customers, or when consumers inquire about the forms of payments accepted, the credit card payment processing account user must state their acceptance of the card brands and show their logos, in accordance with the brands' requirements and equally prominently for all payment types. The merchant must not use these logos in any form that damages or otherwise hurts the goodwill associated with these brands, nor (without their explicit written agreement) make an endorsement of the merchant's merchandise or services. The retailer is permitted to only use the brand logos as is necessary to perform its obligations under the merchant agreement and is required to stop using them upon a cancellation of the processing agreement. Card acceptors cannot take bank cards for any of the activities listed below:

• Any merchant involved in illegal activity.
• E-commerce and MO / TO pharmacies (where fulfillment of the prescription is performed with an online or telephone consultation, without a physical visit with a physician.
• E-commerce and MO / TO firearm or weapons sales (including ammunition).
• E-commerce and MO / TO cigarette tobacco sales.
• Occult materials.
• Online gambling.
• Lotteries and raffles.
• Escort services

eCommerce credit card processing interchange fees are not in fact a hidden tax nor are they paid by consumers. Instead, this is a fee that is paid between the card acceptor's bank and the issuer. It is just a component of the discount, which is the compound fee retailers are charged for the service they get when they choose to take credit cards, as well as other other forms of bank cards.

Among the many benefits associated with accepting electronic payments are increased sales, fraud prevention and quicker payment. The eCommerce credit card processing discount, which consists of costs such as accepting payments or leasing terminals, are but one of several charges a merchant is assessed for managing its day-to-day operations, such as power, gas, rent or advertising.

Customers are fully aware that retailers have to account for all of the expenses associated with running their operations by adding them into their prices. Attempts to call such components a "hidden tax" on customers are much like attempting to misrepresent a merchant's rent or utility expenses as a "hidden tax" on customers.

What is more, eCommerce credit card processing interchange rates are far from hidden. The Associations (MasterCard and Visa) publish all of their interchange fees biannually on their websites, and merchants are free to make them available to their customers. Retailers may choose instead not to disclose these charges to customers, just as they elect not to disclose any other costs of doing business or how they price their merchandise.

Interchange in reality serves to minimize costs for consumers by providing incentives for merchants to take cards, to financial institutions to issue them, and to consumers to use them. There are costs that the parties participating in a payment cycle incur and they have to be balanced among the participants. Simply limiting interchange fees for merchants will end up increasing costs for both issuers and consumers. It's actually already happening.

If issuers are not sufficiently compensated, through the interchange, for the credit risk they take, fraud protection they provide, and all the other benefits they provide to retailers, they would start issuing fewer cards, minimize reward programs and increase fees for customers. Additionally, with fewer cards in circulation, eCommerce credit card processing account users will ultimately lose the benefits they get from accepting cards.

In Australia, for example, where the interchange fees were limited by the government, customers ended up being charged additional fees experienced rising interest rates, and their rewards programs were substantially reduced. Moreover, there is absolutely no proof that merchants have lowered prices at their stores.