Press enter to search 03/17/2021 Get great content like this right in your inbox.Subscribe NATIONAL REPORT — Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. are postponing plans to boost the fees U.S. merchants pay when consumers use credit cards, pushing back the changes another year to April 2022 due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The plan included higher fees for the card networks' most prominent programs and for many online transactions, with estimated increases of $768 million a year for Visa and $383 million for Mastercard, according to payments consulting firm CMSPI. "Recognizing U.S. businesses are still facing many challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Visa has decided to significantly modify its planned April 2021 business release to delay the implementation of a number of interchange rate changes," the company told