Ask HN: Is anyone charging extra their customers for credit card payments? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Is anyone charging extra their customers for credit card payments?

3 pointsthomasjeff19 comments

On top of Stripe’s 2.9% + $0.30 how much extra to charge based on how long it takes for a payment to reach the business bank account.

If it takes 14 days for payment to reach from Stripe to Business Bank Account, is it fair to charge 2% APR?

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Starting from October, credit card surcharges are banned in Australia.

https://www.rba.gov.au/payments-and-infrastructure/review-of...

Would the business apply the proposed 2% APR on the time it takes any refunds to arrive in the spirit of being fair?

They are legal in most of the US and usually limited to cost recovery for the merchant fee (3-4%).

If a business can support pay by bank via instant payments, that is a cheaper, almost instant option. With that said, Stripe is the least amount of friction for accepting payments online until the merchant fees become painful at scale.

Why is it illegal?

Must businesses I deal with charge 3%. I don't know of any which have a charge less than 3%, except gas stations which usually charge ten cents per gallon, which used to be more than 3%, but now is much less than 3%.

This question is very practical. Credit card fees are a burden for small businesses, but passing costs to customers may affect sales.

Not only the credit card fees but also the delay in payouts. If Stripe holds your money indefinitely, how to take that risk into account?

In many places that's ilegal, but you can offer a 3% discount on cash ;)

Why would it be illegal?

Gemini says that in USA it's legal except in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and Puerto Rico, but it's a gray are in other states and cite https://allaypay.com/blog/processing/credit-card-surcharge-l... that agree with that. Wikipedia agree https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surcharge_(payment_systems)

My recommendation is ato ask a real layer instead of listening to randoms from the Internet that are not giving legal advice.

Here in Argentina it's nice that whatever price you see in the store window or shelf is the same number that you pay. (It's specially nice when you pay in cash). The only exception are the telephone companies, but they are consider shady anyway. (This is unlike USA that at the last second they add some random taxes and whatever, so you never know how much you are going to pay.)

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