Visa, Mastercard Plan to Add New Card Fees in the Coming Months

Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are planning to boost the fees that many retailers pay when accepting customers’ credit and debit cards.

The additional Visa charges are slated to begin in October for online transactions, followed in April by new fees for commercial credit, debit and prepaid cards, according to a document seen by Bloomberg News. For Mastercard, a new pre-authorization fee for credit-card purchases will start in October, the document shows.

With the increases, merchants could pay more than $500 million in additional fees each year, according to merchant-consulting company CMSPI.

So-called interchange fees have become a contentious issue ...