Credit card transaction fees are a huge drain on profit margins, especially when you're dealing with many small transactions.
I remember when I worked for a small, locally owned convenience store, people would try to pay for a single soda or $2 worth of gas with a credit card then get angry when I'd tell them there was a minimum purchase amount. I would say, seriously, you're literally contributing to the death of this establishment. We'd lose money every time we engaged in transactions under a certain amount. With small businesses especially, it's a huge problem.
It's annoying but I can't blame them.
On a related note, even though I despise using Windows LIVE (Microsoft Account, whatever), I had to log in recently to access my Microsoft certifications. It had been a very long time since I used it for anything except that, so I was kind of browsing around and discovered that I have a balance of 400 Microsoft points from years ago when you had to use the horrible GFWL to buy Fallout 3 DLC.
Btw, anyone know how much that is in real money?
