| Peer review: Merchants pay fees for sales that use plastic
A You have heard correctly: Merchants pay fees when you use your plastic for purchases. Those charges are called "interchange fees," although there may be some fees with other names built in as well. The system is fairly complicated, but the fact is that if you spend $100 using plastic when shopping, the merchant likely will see only $98 or $99 of it. Credit-card and debit signature transactions typically cost merchants between 1 percent and 2 percent of the purchase amount in fees, depending on the type of card and the banks involved. Debit transactions using a PIN cost the merchants much less, around 0.2 to 0.5 percent. These fees are divided among the bank that issued the card, the credit-card network (Visa, MasterCard, etc.), and the merchant's account provider. Some have called those fees an implicit tax, because merchants pass the costs on to customers in the form of higher prices.
AllState merchant Service, LLC. www.allstatevmc.com 866.541.8472 ...
We will begin training and hiring for the Brooklyn New York AllState Merchant Service (AMS) February 15th, 2008. In 2008 we intend to hire a minimum of 400 new account managers which will build relationships, grow their customer base and will provide proper customized vehicles for merchants which accept or want to accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, debit cards, electronic checks etc' We are committed to reliability, customer service and assure each merchant of a dedicated account representative for quality account management. AMS also offers a variety of credit card processing terminals, pos systems, web based processing systems for retail, mail/ phone order, internet based, and home based and service related industries. AllState Merchant Service, LLC. guarantees customer satisfaction and discounted rates.
School food not making the grade
My oldest daughter has learned to regret spending her perfectly good earned shopping money on crummy MacDonald's, and does try to bring her own healthy lunch to school. I've also let her know a few tricks for a cheap healthy lunch if you forgot or didn't have time: go to Safeway (or whatever you have nearby as a grocer), get a kaiser from the bulk bin for 16 cents, a slice of your fave deli meat, a slice of deli cheese, and an apple and a small milk. This will cost you very little! I usually pack a lunch to work, but if I forget, heaven help me! our work kitchen is stocked with high-fat lunch foods (canned/frozen), chocolate bars, chips, muffins, etc. I often eat at my desk, but use leave time to go for a walk a couple times per day. It's true parents need to set a good example, but the schools should not sell crap to our kids.
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