Shopping with a credit card can soon become more expensive

Credit card companies migrate a variety of fees US merchants will pay to process transactions, which is likely to cause the already noisy relationship between many businesses and card networks.

Visa Inc.

V, + 0.83%

and Mastercard Inc.,

MA, + 0.41%

the two largest US card network, preparing increases on certain existing charges that will kick in April, according to people familiar with the case.

Some of the changes relate to so-called exchange fees. Card networks set the price of these fees, which sellers pay to banks when consumers deal with the cards they issue. Also, due to the increase, fees such as card networks are charged to financial institutions for processing card payments on behalf of sellers.

Sellers often increase prices consumers pay for such fee increases, in an effort to protect their own profits. About 1[ads1]% to 2.5% of the prices of goods and services go to cover card fees, according to people familiar with seller prices.

See an extended version of this story at WSJ.com.