Originally Posted by
Happy
Several years ago Australia have passed the laws to allow merchants capture the CC transaction fee. Many eateries would have a sign that if Paying by Cash, you get 3% discount. Essentially is you pay 3% higher if paid by CC. Since our CCs earn 3% rebate on dining, so it makes a breakeven transaction, more convenient than get the Australian $ to save the 3%.
I believe Marriott finally capped it at 1% but not sure about this since the last time we were in Australia was 2019. Westin there informed me about the CC surcharge.
Here locally in the good ole USA, our State also passed legislation to allow merchants charge 3% CC transaction fee - but so far the practice is only prevalent at gas stations which also need to show Cash Price on their billboards.
Other merchants simply continue the business as usual by having the cash paying customers bear the cost by way of not getting a discount.
Regardless, you pay the 3% one way or the other, visible or hidden. Really does not make much of a difference.
Whether you pay more or not it's not as black and white as you think. It's not like in September a room costs $200 and since the law passed they reduced the price to $194. This is an excuse for merchants to put up the price legitimately. Plus the world is bigger than the US, here in Denmark we have a forex fee of 2% and rebate of 0.5% for the only one no annual fee credit card. If you want any benefits you pay a hefty annual fee, and you can get a free cc without any annual fee but they will rob you through a hefty forex fee from 2% and up.
They can charge whatever they want but when a business like hotel/car rental that requires authorization or credit card is the only form of accepted payment, I think they shouldn't be charging a fee for using credit cards. If I visit Canada again I might have to carry CAD 500 to use as deposit when I check into a hotel.
There's a better way, tell the banks to cap the fees, plain and simple. In Scandinavia we are going towards a cashless society and it seems like North America is going backwards.
Every time I tank with cash in the US and I was thinking gas stations must be a prime target of robberies, the till must have like thousands of dollars cash (20 cars per hour and each pay $20).