My experience is that even when retailers use a third party service (like four-square?) the merchant fee IS shown on the receipt as well as on the bank statement. BUT generally, they DO NOT mention that there is a surcharge.
I find that petrol/service stations are more likely to advise when there is a surcharge, particularly on one card vs another (eg surcharge on Amex , none on Visa/MC).
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I try to avoid traders who add hidden charges on top of the normal posted price. A few days ago, my wife was refused cash by a trader. The credit card receipt showed a fee on top of the price of the goods and later another fee appeared on the bank statement. We will never buy there again âŠ
Why canât the fees for card payments be included in the sales price? You do the same with the other overheads and donât pay extra fees for electricity, rent, etc. And I donât understand the argument that if you want the convenience of paying by card, you have to pay an extra fee. You donât pay an additional fee if you want to sit more comfortably in a heated or air-conditioned area in a restaurant, for example.
And many pubs or restaurants now advertise that you can order with a QR code and your mobile phone. But (if it works) there are additional fees for the credit card company and for the provider of the service.
In the past, the state or the central bank took over the costs of payment. This was also quite expensive overall and it was called âcashâ. There were no extra costs for the customer. Perhaps there should be a legal regulation here that no additional costs for card payment may be added to the stated final price for consumers. Often this is only a few cents, but in percentage terms it can be quite a lot.
I canât shake the feeling that more and more merchants and service providers want to take us for fools. They are increasingly trying to make extra money with hidden fees.
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They can be and many businesses still consider merchant fees from POS payment platforms a operating cost of doing business and factor such fees in pricing of goods and services they provide. Some businesses take a different view that since there is an opportunity to on charge such fees to a customer extra, they do. I wonder how many reduced their pricing when they decided to pass on a surcharge - I suspect not many.
Having pricing which doesnât include surcharge looks more attractive to a customer than say a 1-3% increase in all displayed prices across the board. This is possibly why some businesses try and sneak surcharges onto their customers.
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