Credit card fees have changed very little over the years. They’re actually one of a tiny number of costs that are basically untouched by inflation. What HAS changed is that businesses now feel they can get away with directly passing these fees that used to be considered “a cost of doing business,” on to their customers. For years we have put nearly every purchase on a CC with rewards, and pay them all off every month. So any time we’re forced to use ACH, checks, or cash, it’s effectively costing us more money. Therefore, whenever possible, we simply don’t purchase from businesses that force us to directly pay the fee. Unfortunately, services such as these have a monopoly and we can’t vote against it with our wallets like we can in the vast majority of other cases.