Questions and Answers

Due to an ongoing court case result, merchants can now charge a fee for using credits cards. Usually merchants were barred from doing that, but now the new law is in effect. More info:
[URL]https://nypost.com/2019/04/27/new-yorkers-are-furious-over-sneaky-credit-card-surcharges/[/URL]

This might seriously affect the points game

Even before this some places charged a fee for using cards. My impression was that it was illegal to charge the fee for using a specific card type (i.e. fees for Amex cards, but not MC/VS)

On the upside, the “fee” is charged by the merchant, not the processor, so it’ll still show up on the card statement as a single charge and earns full rewards points and eligible bonus points.

The bigger issue is that hard cash income will be greater and merchants may not report all their cash income. I wouldnt be surprised at ALL if merchants reported a decline in overall sales, rather than a decrease in credit card sales and increase of cash sales.

[QUOTE=”David W, post: 64211, member: 29″]Even before this some places charged a fee for using cards. My impression was that it was illegal to charge the fee for using a specific card type (i.e. fees for Amex cards, but not MC/VS)
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I have not yet read the article above, but I am almost 100% certain that David is correct. If the article deals with what I think it does, Amex challenged the fact that some merchants were charging customers more for using Amex cards. That is what was held illegal. David is correct – merchants have always been able to charge more for customers paying with cards. Anyone who drove in the 70’s or 80’s will remember gas stations listing two prices – “Cash” and “Credit”.

This is a very common practice in the construction and remodeling trades. They usually want 5% more for a card transaction. I live in a big city with a lot of competition so it isn’t hard to find contractors who don’t charge a card fee. This isn’t a good strategy – it will hurt merchants more than card consumers.