You may or may not remember a legal battle last year between the banks and retailers over the increasing surcharges being imposed on retailers for purchases made using Visa or Mastercard. In the end, the retailers won out and received a settlement.

As usual, some new legislation was also introduced in order to rectify the situation, and this legislation essentially helped the retailers and banks by allowing them to pass these costs on to us, the consumers. Starting today, retailers may add a surcharge to transactions made using a card. Gas stations have been the leaders in this trend, and I'm not sure how they were getting away with it before this law was enacted, but watch as this now becomes the trend everywhere.

The lesson here is that cash works best, and the more you avoid using the banks, the more money you'll keep in the end. Take your cash out of the bank! If you have long-term savings, buy some gold instead, it will retain it's value better than the 1% interest you're getting now. If you have short-term savings, get a gun and a shoebox and hold on to that cash yourself.

Credit Card Surcharges Could Begin Today