We have a small retail business in the family. It's been in operation in its community for decades now.

It's been interesting to see the evolution over the years on the business's viewpoint toward credit cards. Years ago, they were tolerated, but the preference was cash, no matter how difficult it was to collect. On telephone orders, the practice was to ask "where can I send the bill?" and only take a credit card if the customer requested it.

Eventually the Accounts Receivable issues became chronic. It was hours of work every month to send invoices, then send reminders, process checks, call people who didn't pay, maintain the list of deadbeat customers, etc. Plus the expense of all the paper and postage.

The policy changed to asking "which credit card would you like to use?"... I would guess 95% of customers had no problem at all with that and the remaining 5% are still allowed to pay by check.

The surprise was how much the average order size increased. In combination with launching an online ordering site, I would guess the average order size went up 25% within a year. It easily made up for all the credit card processing charges and the occasional chargeback.

The whole surcharge thing strikes me as so short sighted. People spend much more, on average, when they swipe a credit card than when they have to hand over cash or check, and the processing cost is much lower if there is any sort of invoicing involved.