3% Credit Card SWIPE FEES to be paid by CONSUMER, not Retailer

[american.swan]

I always thought they were paid by the consumer.

[ItsTime]

I always thought they were paid by the consumer.

Good point...

[angelatc]

I'm really sad to see the number of people who are rebelling against the thought of paying your own damned fees. Sounds like you think you're entitled to have someone else pick up your tab.

When credit cards first hit the market, the banks passed them out like candy. You didn't need to apply - you'd just come home and find a credit card in your mailbox. The retailers were the last people to get on board, and they tried to discourage the cards by passing on the extra fees to the people using the cards. The banks retaliated by getting FedGov to pass a law that prohibited retailers for charging extra for using credit cards.

Eventually, FedGov passed new laws. They said that if a bank sent you a card that you didn't apply for, you didn't have to pay for anything that was charged on it, and they repealed the law that prohibited retailers from passing on the charges. The Banksters tried to get the law through again, then failed, so they pursued it on the state level. They also added a clause that made it a breach of the contract for the retailers to pass the fees along.

Since that meant, in essence, that retailers couldn't simply jack up the cost of only the items being charged, they had to raise prices across the board to compensate. Hurrah - the economy is expanding!!!!!

BY this time, consumers demanded cards. I hate them, but I know darned well that a business that doesn't take CCs won't do as much business as one who does. But if you think that retailers have up till now absorbed the fees as a simple matter of good will, then you're badly mistaken.

[MRK]

My local gas station sells gas 4cents lessper gallon for cash.I pay cash.Probably saves me over $30 a year.I would rather spend it on something else even though it is not much.

The thing is, if you pay 4 cents less per gallon thats not a big deal. Many gas stations and credit cards have an option where you get points that are the equivalent of 5% off per gasoline purchase. So you buy a gallon of gas at $3.46 with cash that would have cost you $3.50 if you had used a credit card, you were really paying less with the credit card as you would have received 17.5 cents in return per gallon at 5% effectively making the price of your gallon $3.325 instead of the $3.460. Assuming you fill up 20 gallons twice a month after a year you would have saved $64.80 with the credit card rewards program versus the 4 cent discount with cash only. And as the price of gasoline increases the 5% instead of the 4 cents / gallon becomes even more lucrative.

[angelatc]

The thing is, if you pay 4 cents less per gallon thats not a big deal. Many gas stations and credit cards have an option where you get points that are the equivalent of 5% off per gasoline purchase. So you buy a gallon of gas at $3.46 with cash that would have cost you $3.50 if you had used a credit card, you were really paying less with the credit card as you would have received 17.5 cents in return per gallon at 5% effectively making the price of your gallon $3.325 instead of the $3.460. Assuming you fill up 20 gallons twice a month after a year you would have saved $64.80 with the credit card rewards program versus the 4 cent discount with cash only. And as the price of gasoline increases the 5% instead of the 4 cents / gallon becomes even more lucrative.

Provided, of course, that you pay your balance off at the end of every month and never miss a payment - even by a single day....something that the large majority of card holders do not do. Most people try to play that game and lose. That's the whole reason it exists.

[oyarde]

The thing is, if you pay 4 cents less per gallon thats not a big deal. Many gas stations and credit cards have an option where you get points that are the equivalent of 5% off per gasoline purchase. So you buy a gallon of gas at $3.46 with cash that would have cost you $3.50 if you had used a credit card, you were really paying less with the credit card as you would have received 17.5 cents in return per gallon at 5% effectively making the price of your gallon $3.325 instead of the $3.460. Assuming you fill up 20 gallons twice a month after a year you would have saved $64.80 with the credit card rewards program versus the 4 cent discount with cash only. And as the price of gasoline increases the 5% instead of the 4 cents / gallon becomes even more lucrative.

The credit card rewards are not useful to me.

[oyarde]

If you travel all week for work , I could see trying to play the reward thing for hotels and air fare, been there before .

[Carson]

When I was younger I had some friends that worked at the car wash.

It was in a better part of town. One of the things they said the rich people would do was try and negotiate a reduction in the price of things like they were bartering in Mexico. They said they would ask for a discount if they used cash. They would tell the place if they didn't get the discount they would put it on their credit card and they would be getting less money anyway.

And anyway, if I got it right, that was one on the games they would play to pinch a penny. It hardly seemed worth it to me. They told me about a bunch of other ways. I can't remember any but I suppose it could be why some of them had money. They hung on tight.

[jdmyprez_deo_vindice]

Most everyone in the auction industry has been charging people for purchases on cards for years now. Heck, the buyers premium started out as a credit card transaction fee.

[sailingaway]

they will be passed on in the average cost of the product. although in CA there are already gas stations with different prices for 'cash'