Credit card surcharges

[JoshyBoi]

Just curious what you usually do when faced with credit card surcharges??

Options are...

1. Change form of payment
2. Change form of payment and look for alternate suppliers for next time
3. Refuse to pay and look for alternate supplier
4. Just pay it, who cares
5. Other, something I forgot?

For my part, I float between options 1 and 2....I can understand credit card surcharges, especially in small business where it is genuinely passing on the costs of the transactions. Disclaimer: I do have a partial bias in that my parents operate a small business in which we surcharge for amex (only). I'd prefer them not to so as not to discourage business, but can understand the need too.

In other instances, taxi's for example, it is just an exorbitant ripoff...as a habit I don't generally catch a taxi, but when I do always ensure I have cash (unless of course work is paying...).

I saw a business the other day that had a flat charge of $1.00 per credit card transactions, for some reason that seemed to sit a lot better with me then a %...perhaps it was the fact that it was a definite amount known at the outset? That said, this would represent a 10% charge on a $10 transaction...

Thoughts?

 

[Luv2Travel]

I don't mind businesses passing on the cost of the transaction to the customer. I won't pay it however, I'll just find another form of payment, or if it's something like a shop, I will find another shop that doesn't charge a surcharge. I wouldn't go to the extreme of changing electricity supplier or telephone supplier just to avoid the surcharge though, just means I'll pay another method.

I thought the law was, businesses could pass on the cost of the transaction to the customer but not extra. Obviously I was wrong though as I was having this discussion recently with a colleague who got charged some ridiculous fee for a taxi fare. I think it was about $10 on a $60 fare, or something like that, can't remember exactly. She was too drunk at the time to notice the little sign saying that's what they charge. I don't use taxi's so wouldn't have a clue what they charge, their fare isn't justifiable to me, in my opinion (I'd rather drink less) let alone worrying about credit card surcharges!

 

[wylie]

I ask if I can use Amex wherever I go, if there is no sign saying it cannot be used. (I probably asked your parents JoshyBoi when I went there to eat last time ).

If I am spending a couple of thousand and it costs me $3.50 to use Amex, I will do so because I get double points. I would not pay an extra $3.50 on a small purchase.

 

[Aaron Sice]

i refuse to allow DD so i get a lot of "surcharges".

thankfully, at least i get 30% back on tax.

 

[JoshyBoi]

I ask if I can use Amex wherever I go, if there is no sign saying it cannot be used. (I probably asked your parents JoshyBoi when I went there to eat last time ).

If I am spending a couple of thousand and it costs me $3.50 to use Amex, I will do so because I get double points. I would not pay an extra $3.50 on a small purchase.

As an aside, we used to have an agreement with Amex whereby they'd reduce the service fee from approximately 3% to approximately 1% on the proviso that we don't surcharge...that condition made it almost equivalent to a standard credit card charge, so were happy with that and didn't surcharge...

That said, my understanding is that that form of agreement was something they were temporarily offering for 3 years has expired and at this stage they are not looking at renewing any of them...


Biggles, agree with your comments re changing electricity supplier over a surcharge as 99.9% of the time, they'll offer alternatives which I take up...

 

[lizzie]

like wylie, i ask if they take amex (double points) and if not then i whip out the mastercard (single points) instead.

as for finding a different method to pay? i notice many of the internet payments are starting to incur a surcharge, but i'd rather pay $1 for the convinience of paying via the internet than having to get in the car, drive to a shopping centre, wait in a queue and pay.

 

[wobbycarly]

If it's a work expense (AMEX), I just say "yeah, whatever" but for a personal purchase, I'd usually go with option 2. I rarely pay any surcharge (Visa) but if the expense is large-ish and the surcharge is low-ish (eg, 50c-$1 / txn) then I'll pay the extra to get the points.

The only retailer at which I'm a regular, and where I'll pay the surcharge is our local butcher. They have a 1% on all credit txns. Since I usually spend ~$100, this is usually <$1, and they are so cheap* anyway (which is why I go there) that this is worthwhile for me.



*$19.99/kg for (budget) eye fillet steak, $22.99/kg for (not budget) scotch

 

[Strannik]

i usually float between options 1 and 4.

 

[pennyk]

i get really annoyed about paying a surcharge at places where you basically have to pay by credit card.. hotels etc, particularly for business expenses.
I stayed at hotel recently where they charged a surcharge...... so I cancelled a conference we had planned to have at the same chain in protest! (the service and room was also really poor, which contributed to my frustrations.)
I think its a big rip off........

Pen

 

[Mr. Fabulous]

like wylie, i ask if they take amex (double points) and if not then i whip out the mastercard (single points) instead.

as for finding a different method to pay? i notice many of the internet payments are starting to incur a surcharge, but i'd rather pay $1 for the convinience of paying via the internet than having to get in the car, drive to a shopping centre, wait in a queue and pay.

I have to pay a surcharge on a few things, big deal. It's a couple of bucks. My time is worth far more to me than worrying about pocket change.

 

[steveadl]

I thought the law was, businesses could pass on the cost of the transaction to the customer but not extra. Obviously I was wrong though as I was having this discussion recently with a colleague who got charged some ridiculous fee for a taxi fare. I think it was about $10 on a $60 fare, or something like that, can't remember exactly. She was too drunk at the time to notice the little sign saying that's what they charge. I don't use taxi's so wouldn't have a clue what they charge, their fare isn't justifiable to me, in my opinion (I'd rather drink less) let alone worrying about credit card surcharges!

Could be plausible, could not be. It's been a while since I've researched CAB (Cabcharge), but from memory they charge minimum 10% processing fee to the taxi driver for using credit card transactions. It's not the standard 1-2% you get in usual retail shops and bill payments.

So $10 may be excessive, but that assumes Cabcharge only charge the driver 10% and not a set fee on top eg. $2-3 per transaction, in which case her $10 charge for a $60 fair would be about right.

 

[EGB18CT]

This is just a nice way of the bank passing on the charges on to you through your supplier/store. Instead of the banks charging you direct bypassing the supplier, they charge the supplier a small percentage who then passes this onto you, often percentage of bank plus a little buffer. As a result this makes the bank look nicer and the supplier the 'baddie' because they are passing this onto you instead of sucking it up etc.....

The bank eventually get's it fee's and still offers you a 'free' credit card