Shoppers may want to start choosing 'debit' instead of 'credit' at the checkout.
A settlement between Visa, MasterCard, and nine different banks made it legal for retailers to charge consumers the fees issued by creditors.
Those surcharges can be as much as four percent of the total bill.
"Either we try to pass that cost onto our consumer--which we would want not to do--or we have to try to absorb that," said Clayton Harvey, owner of Lexington pet shop Bluegrass Barkery.
Reps for retailers like Walmart, Home Depot, and Meijer said they won't be adding the surcharge to their customers' bills.
Locally, the owner of Lexington's Black Swan Books said, "It's just the cost of doing business."
Harvey said he doesn't plan to charge his customers that fee, either.
"For you to be competitive, you really need to try to offer those same services," he said.
Debit cards can't be charged the fee.
And by law, businesses that do add the surcharge must post a sign saying so at checkout--both in-store and online.
