How often do you use your credit card for daily purchases?

As part of the original card agreements, stores had to give a percentage of every sale to the card providers for making the transaction happen. The fee can range from fractions of a per cent to more than two per cent for some premium cards. Merchants were forbidden from passing on that cost to consumers. But that all changed earlier this year, when Visa, MasterCard and other card providers settled a long-running lawsuit on the issue in Canada. Did you hear about this lawsuit in the news?

Part of the new deal with credit card companies allows merchants to pass on that cost to consumers directly in the form of a surcharge — which means consumers should get used to seeing it soon.The new rules won't be a free-for-all, as starting Thursday, merchants must give card providers 30 days' notice of their intent to start charging a fee. They must also make it clear to customers at the time of payment that there's a surcharge, and it can't be more than they pay themselves. Finally, the surcharge will be capped at 2.4 per cent. If you use credit cards, will you still use it if there's a fee?

If you use credit cards, and places you go start adding the fee, will you change to other businesses if there is another option?