Many small businesses are breathing a bit easier as inflation has cooled and the race for workers slows. But consumers’ steady embrace of credit cards is taking a growing bite out of their margins.

Once a credit card swipe crosses the $5,000 mark, the transaction stops being routine and starts triggering a series of behind-the-scenes checks, score calculations, and banking rules that most people ...

The risk of credit card fraud doesn’t end when or where you swipe your card. Any business that stores your credit card number could experience a data breach in which a hacker attains access to your ...