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The surprising history and clever tactics of an industry few Americans fully understand.

Credit card companies Visa and MasterCard along with major banks have agreed to pay several billion dollars to settle a lawsuit brought by retailers. The deal is one of the largest anti-trust settlements in history. The retailers claimed that Visa, MasterCard and the banks conspired to fix the fees that stores pay to accept credit and debit cards. NPR's Wendy Kaufman reports.

Visa, MasterCard and some of the largest banks in the country have agreed to pay more than $6 billion to settle a lawsuit that claimed they conspired to fix credit card payment fees. The suit was brought on behalf of seven million merchants. The agreement could have wide-ranging implications for retailers and consumers. Steve Henn talks to Melissa Block.

Daniel talks with Robert McKinley of the RAM Research Group who says that consumer credit card debt has tripled in the last decade. McKinley says many credit card issuers are now offering seemingly great "teaser rates" that draw more people into getting credit cards, but then people forget those rates double and even triple after a certain amount of time and therefore more and more people are getting loaded down with debt.

Linda talks to Ann Reilly Dowd, Washington correspondent for Money Magazine, about the record high credit card delinquency reported today by the American Bankers Association. During the April-June quarter of this year, credit card payments overdue 30 days or longer rose to 3.66 percent of the total accounts, higher than it has ever been since the association began collecting data in 1974. During that same period, banks suffered $3.8 billion in losses on credit card and consumer loans, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

NPR's John McChesney reports that Visa and Mastercard have agreed on a single technical standard that they say will allow for secure purchases over the Internet. The two credit card giants had been pursuing different systems with conflicting security specifications. Today's announcement means banks and consumers will not have to worry about choosing one system over the other.

Credit card delinquencies rose in the first three months of the year. That's a sign of the growing financial stress that some families are feeling in an era of rising prices and high interest rates.

Before the Great Recession, many Americans piled up too much credit card debt. Now, they seem to be a little wiser about using plastic, says the head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

At a town hall meeting in New Mexico Thursday, President Obama touted legislation designed to protect consumers from fluctuating credit card rules. He also urged Congress to act quickly on legislation to end credit card practices deemed abusive.

Genesee County Sheriff's Deputies have arrested 3 people on felony charges in connection with stolen credit cards. Employees at a Batavia Rite Aid…