It's not legal for a store to charge an extra fee or percentage when customers pay by credit card, but it is legal to offer a discount to customers who pay in cash. Great. The flaw in this plan is that, at least in New York state, there aren't any laws regulating how big that discount can be. Which is why some Long Island gas station operators recently hiked the price per gallon of gas a dollar, then offered a one-dollar discount to customers who pay cash.
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5 comments:
Why isn't it illegal to charge more for credit card usage? It used to be against the agreements between the card acceptors and the card companies to have a minimum purchase requirement, but in the past year or so those restrictions have been removed. Credit cards are not "legal tender" and no one is under any legal obligation to accept them...
I think I would be investigating these stations to see why they want cash so bad instead of credit cards. Sounds like someone is trying to mess with the books since cash is not as easily traceable.
The reason they want a higher price for credit card use is the credit card company charges the merchant a fee for every transaction. Therefore, they do not make the same on a credit card deal as they would a cash deal.
2:14
I know that there is a place in Delmar that only takes cash. I usually never carry that much cash with me. I hardly ever go to the bank since our checks are direct deposit. This store lost my business because it's easier for me to go to another business that will take my check card. I know the company is charged a fee when someone uses a credit card but how much money will they be losing if they don't take them.
Last year, on a trip up to New England, we ran into this same thing.
Gas was advertised on the sign at $4.19/gallon. We stopped there because it was the cheapest we had seen. Only once we actually went to pump the gas did we see the credit card price was $4.39/gallon!
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