Fee fight: Credit card transaction fees make foes of retailers and banks

Consumers may not think much about the credit card transaction fees that banks charge retailers. But both groups want you to -- and with a conflict heating up over how much those fees should be, they both want you on their side.

In this war over processing fees, both groups are trying to win consumers over with videos on YouTube, with the retailers using a pirate theme and bankers using a rather dull classroom scenario. Retailers want the right to negotiate those fees. Bankers say merchants already have the right to negotiate, but most choose to go with a default nonnegotiable rate.