Two-thirds of the world’s Internet population visit social networking or blogging sites, according to a new Nielsen report. Social Media is changing how we interact with each other and is shifting the power to the community.

One of the most powerful social network tools are peer comparisons. New financial web portals like Mint, Geezeo and ING’s CompareMe allow consumers to see how similar people are managing their finances and investments. These online anonymous peer comparisons are demonstrating that there is strength in numbers.

Now business owners can use myRealRate.com to anonymously compare payment card processing expenses with what others are paying for merchant services within their industry. myRealRate is a rich internet application delivering peer-to-peer knowledge sharing with a nationwide database of the real costs to accept credit and debit cards.

New businesses can use myRealRate to gain insight about the average costs of card acceptance based on their projected sales volume and transaction size within a specific industry category. Existing businesses now have an authoritative resource for comparing their rate and to find out if their merchant card processing fees are higher or low than the industry average. Previously the sources of information about merchant rates were those selling merchant services. Sharing with your peers is one of the keys to lower cost of accepting credit and debit card payments.