On his podcast, Clark Howard answers real reader questions on money, credit, debt, retirement, travel, and more, along with co-host Christa DiBiase.

Clark's answer: This is such a major problem, and it all traces back to the Visa and Mastercard cartel and a corrupt Congress doing the bidding of big banks. We have the highest credit card processing fees in the world – I’ve never found anywhere in all my research that has fees as outrageous as ours. So if you're running a business, a restaurant, or a retail store, you feel forced to pass these fees along because it’s practically reverse bank robbery. The banks are robbing these businesses with these massive cartel fees.

Now, there is actually a federal law that caps the processing fees on debit cards, but that cap only applies if you process the transaction as a true debit card using your PIN. Unless a merchant is applying the fee incorrectly, if you insert your card and enter your four-digit PIN instead of running it as a credit signature transaction, you should avoid those huge add-on fees that so many retailers are passing on to customers. My hope is that this is what’s happening in your case – that you’ve been running the debit card without using your PIN. Try using your PIN at checkout and see if those fees go away or drop to almost nothing.

We desperately need to fix this system, but in the meantime, switching to your PIN is your best move to avoid those extra charges.