The safest alternative payment service, according to Forzley, is Secure-ebill, where a customer provides only a name and e-mail address to the merchant, which in turn sends a bill electronically.

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Shoppers can use the Card Case app to search for businesses that are also using the service, then use the app to pay their bill, by giving the merchant their name.

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Responding to merchant complaints about unduly expensive debit fees, last year's Dodd-Frank bill authorized the Federal Reserve to emulate the Australian example and cap fees on debit cards.

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Today she uses New York-based Merchant Processing Services, which charges her a base rate of 1.61% on each bill, plus 20 cents per card swipe.

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