Credit Card Surcharge fees start 1/27

[Mattemma]

I was reading on the Visa web site that merchants will now be able to pass on swipe fees to consumers.Would you be willing to pay that fee just to use the credit card? Not me.Time to go all cash when Discover starts up.

Visa and Mastercard are first to allow this.Some states do not permit it.There were 10 listed.

 

[theoldchick]

Used to be credit card companies offered all kinds of perks to get a person to sign up. The only thing I use the credit card for is internet purchases. But if I'm charged a swipe fee, I'll discontinue the card.

 

[MamaRoo]

I've always figured you pay it anyway - even if you pay cash. It was just pre-figured into the price.

 

[dewey]

It has already been being passed-on to the consumer for a very long time. It's just that now merchants can add a line-item for the fee they are being charged by the CC companies if the merchant desires to.

Nothing really new at all except semantics.

The CC terms were that merchants could not state that they were charging what it cost them to process CC transactions, so cash discounts came into play...

Consumer: "What is the price?"
Merchant: "$200, and we offer a 3% discount for cash"
Consumer: "So you are charging me more for paying with a CC"
Merchant: "No, we do not charge more CC transactions -- our regular price is $200 and we offer a 3% discount for cash"

All business costs are part of a merchant's overhead and you can believe, that, as overhead, it is all built into pricing. I wouldn't expect to sell a dozen eggs and have a buyer be insulted because my selling price includes the overhead.

 

[oldrooster]

It has already been being passed-on to the consumer for a very long time. It's just that now merchants can add a line-item for the fee they are being charged by the CC companies if the merchant desires to.

Nothing really new at all except semantics.

The CC terms were that merchants could not state that they were charging what it cost them to process CC transactions, so cash discounts came into play...

Consumer: "What is the price?"
Merchant: "$200, and we offer a 3% discount for cash"
Consumer: "So you are charging me more for paying with a CC"
Merchant: "No, we do not charge more CC transactions -- our regular price is $200 and we offer a 3% discount for cash"

All business costs are part of a merchant's overhead and you can believe, that, as overhead, it is all built into pricing. I wouldn't expect to sell a dozen eggs and have a buyer be insulted because my selling price includes the overhead.

When Target opened up in my town about 30 years ago they did the reverse they charged X for cash and then a percentage more for using a credit card (roughly according to other retailers the percentage they where charged according to the newspaper reports when they opened) so they may have swallowed the "swipe fee" if there was one at the time but they didn't loose the big money on the sur-charge, there was such an uproar here and other areas they dropped the practice but when they did they raised prices roughly the same amount as the highest percentage. So yes they did pass it on, now the buisneses are getting more greedy....