It is expected that the recently concluded consent decree between the US Department of Justice and Visa & Mastercard will make the pricing better for the consumers. The decree ascertains that the anti-trust lawsuit against Visa and MasterCard gets settled.

While parties like American Express and Discover, who were not part of the lawsuit, say that not much benefit can be derived by the consumers or the retailers for that matter, there are others who believe it would.

Discover has rightly pointed out that through this lawsuit all that the merchants wanted was to get an ability to levy surcharge for credit card usage. And they have been successful in doing so. But there are many, who have also hailed the Justice Department's decision.

Meanwhile, the American Express has promised that it will be fighting against the government aggressively, on the move taken by them forcing the credit card companies to face higher costs. This is affecting their stock prices badly.

In an op-ed written for the Washington Post, CEO of American Express, Kenneth Chenault has said that the government's claim of reducing prices for the consumers means that there will be lesser competition in the market.