Because Visa and Mastercard essentially have them backed into a corner, the merchants allege that they are forced to pay outrageously high transaction fees levied for debit card purchases made under the two associations' brand. Debit card transactions consummated through the Visa and Mastercard signature-based system cost five to 20 times more than the purchases made using a traditional automated teller machine card. The ATM cards typically depend on an online network and requires consumers to enter a personal identification code, or PIN, into a keypad at the cash register. James Benedict, a New York attorney for the credit card associations, said Visa and Mastercard are simply trying to protect consumer rights and the integrity of their brands by requiring merchants who accept their credit cards to process the debit transactions, too. When you go into a store and you see the Mastercard logo, you expect the card to be accepted, whether it's a credit card or a debit card.
Retailers do have choice.
They can either choose to accept our brands or not accept our brands. Merchants contend they really don't have any choice but to accept the Mastercard and Visa credit cards because consumers depend on them to pay for so much merchandise. Some retailers, such as Nordstrom, briefly decided to stop accepting the credit cards in protest of the debit card fees, but had to back down once management concluded the boycott was costing the stores too much business. Constantine argued that the higher prices reflect the unfair advantage that Visa and Mastercard have over the retailers. They run on two different railroad tracks.