Beware The Checkout Fee [Poll]

As of Sunday, stores in most states, including New Jersey, could start charging customers a "checkout fee" if you pay for something with a credit card. It's part of a multi-billion dollar settlement announced last summer between credit card issuers and millions of merchants across the country. It came about due to charges nine major banks were fixing processing fees.

Part of the settlement gives retailers the option to tack on a surcharge if a customer pays by credit card. It can boil down to something around 3% of your total purchase. Hopefully they'll choose not to do it, but you know once some start more will follow suit. Debit cards cannot be subject to this surcharge.

This got me thinking about how most of us pay for things the majority of the time. For years there's been talk of a cashless society on the horizon. Are we almost there?