Hacker News Reader

Comment by runnr_az | Hacker News Reader

At least in PHX, I’ve been seeing a lot of businesses with a 2-3% surcharge for cards

Huh, I thought that wasn't allowed by the card issuer rules. Isn't that why a lot of places don't take Amex? Because the fees are higher but they can't add a surcharge to cover it?

The rules were changed, I believe in some of the financial legislation passed post-2008.

They were changed in settling a class action lawsuit. But nothing was stopping merchants from offering a cash discount which would have served the same purpose.

In New Orleans, I've seen it advertised as "cash discount." So I guess technically its not a fee on card transactions - it's a discount on cash ones.

Wait, is it common in the US for brick-and-mortar businesses to charge you extra if you pay by card? That doesn't happen in the UK.

Very common, in small, independent shops, though it often seems to be as much about avoiding taxes as avoiding the fee for the credit machine

Interesting. I don't think I've ever seen it here in Britain. Some smaller businesses might insist on a £5 minimum spend if you're not paying cash, but even that has become very rare since the pandemic.

We definitely did that in the Netherlands when I worked at a computer store. Credit cards are comparatively rare, and while "2%" doesn't sound much it's a significant fraction of our profit margin.

On a €600 laptop or desktop we'd earn maybe €50 to €75. The €12 is a comparatively large fraction of that. We didn't actually make that much more money from more expensive laptops, so for a €1,000 model we'd typically also earn €50 to €75, and with €20 of that going to Visa... yeah. After factoring in costs for sales, warranty, rant of the store, etc. there is not much left.

On one hand you can say "well, it's only €20", but on the other hand if everyone started paying paying by CC we'd pretty much go bankrupt.

The official Apple store in Vienna adds 2% to the price if using a CC (at least last time I was there). Then again I don't know anybody who even has a CC here - AFAIK they just aren't that common and they aren't even accepted in a lot of places (though that is changing). They also don't work as normal credit cards in the US i.e. you don't really get credit, since it auto-deducts what you owe from your bank account during the next billing period.

Same here in upstate NY. Mostly smaller businesses like pizza joints and such but pretty much every gas station has been doing this for years.

The only cashless place I’ve seen around here is the major sports stadiums, everyone else seems to greatly prefer cash over cards.

That is for tax evasion purposes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com