Starting Sunday, paying by credit card could get more expensive. Under the terms of a $7.2 billion settlement reached last summer between credit card companies and merchants, merchants will be free to impose a surcharge on customers paying by credit card.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Detweiler offers this advice to affected consumers: "Always have a back up method of payment," she suggests, so you can avoid paying the new charge. "Have a debit card, or slip and extra $20 in your wallet."
Pr00fr3ad1ng 1s h4rd.
Diogenes of Sinope: "It is not that I am mad, it is only that my head is different from yours."
Arnold Judas Rimmer, BSC, SSC: "Better dead than smeg."
I'm betting it's not a discount for paying cash. Prices aren't going to go down, they will only go up for credit cards. They are taking your cash back bonus away from you.
Yeah, I'm guessing prices do NOT drop due to the built-in cost of credit card fees that were built in to all prices, and they will just start tacking on a credit card fee instead of a cash-only discount.
Like when pizza places started charging for delivery, and the money didn't go to the drivers. Pizza costs didn't necessarily drop by the $1.50 fee.
Hopefully some places will advertise, "No credit card fees!" as a way to not piss off customers.
Shit, they can charge a percentage... 4% of a $200 bimonthly grocery shopping trip would be $8. That's enough for me to drive a few extra miles to avoid, even on principle.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
Weird. When I was a kid, gas stations routinely did it, like 2-4 cents per gallon (back in the world of $1 gas), but no one else did. Now I never see it.
Yeah. I was also shocked when I first drove through New Jersey in 1994ish, and found out I wasn't allowed to pump gas into my car. Places where I didn't grow up are all weird.
"Be bold, and mighty forces will come to your aid."
And that's the error, in my opinion. Those gas stations weren't offering a discount on cash, they were charging extra for the CC. The price of the gas was the cash price, you paid extra using the CC.
Around here I have only noticed gas stations doing that in the last few years. Never saw it before.
About 2 years ago, that was a thing on my end of town. Those stations that did it must have suffered a loss in business because now nobody does it.
“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.” - Dr Thomas Sowell
