The Visa fees are for each site within an AVS system, not the system itself. EACH site would be required (if this goes through) to register with Visa and pay the $750 first year fee. Not sure if Mastercard would follow suit and implement the $1,000 first year fee as well.

You do not have to pay the fee twice. If you own 1000 domains, you pay one time. It's a one-time registration fee to Visa for $500 and a $250 fee to your third-party processor or credit card processor (that covers them because each month they have to submit detailed reported for each site; chargebacks sales, etc). If you are with X processor and jump to Y processor, you do not have to pay the fees again. Once the registration fee is paid, that's it.

There are some alternatives. Cash is good, money orders, checks (just use Telecheck), Discover, Diner's Club -- or convert your AVS site to a pay site and either get your own merchant account (it's truly very simple and inexpensive) or go with a third-party processor who doesn't require the Visa registration fees.

For me -- my feelings -- Visa has no business knowing how much my sites are earning.