As an aside (but still somewhat relevant to this thread as we may opt to pay in cash in the event of a surcharge), have you ever noticed how merchants overseas can be reluctant to accept banknotes that are anything less than mint condition? I find this especially true for locales that use the USD either as their official currency or a de facto official currency. I sometimes have to go to multiple merchants or a bank to change the banknote for a better quality one. In the US, I only remember one time a $20 bill was refused at a fast food place since the customer was trying to use an early 90s $20 before the security strip was added. Other than that one case, I've used USD with tears, creases, writing, spilled ink, taped together, etc. without so much as a second glance.

Unsurprisingly, I've never had a refusal of a poor quality banknote for gratuity. :D

Yeah, I've noticed that too. In the US, the Federal Reserve is quite aggressive about replacing worn-out notes, but in other countries this may not be the case. Of course USD circulating abroad cannot be replaced unless it is brought back to the US, so it tends to wear out but remain in use until it makes its way into the hands of an American who brings it back. I've received decades-old USD notes while abroad, some of which I initially thought were counterfeit because I had forgotten how those denominations used to look.

In this case, the Euro note looked as though someone had scrawled on the back a bit to get the ink to flow with a balky pen.

To get back on track a bit, there's a deli in town that takes debit only with a $5 minimum; although I did witness a customer insert a credit card, where the clerk grudgingly agreed to let it go through rather than argue.

So the merchant did take credit cards but was forcing customers to go through the debit network?

Damaged ones in general, really. I've had to go to my local bank branch to replace a $2 bill before and they were able to no problem.

Yes - it was obvious that selecting CREDIT was possible, but she was "strongly discouraging" that over fees. From what I gathered, either Debit wasn't presented as an option on her side, or she tried it (reflexively) and that failed?

A bit related, I suppose, to an incident I mentioned here a while back where paying at the counter at an Indian buffet, the staff would refuse American Express cards for insertion or card-tapping, but apparently it would have been possible to use it on a phone (if they didn't catch it until it fast enough).

Yeah, the surcharges are allowed/ok, but credit or brand discrimination is definitely not allowed especially if the terminal/merchant account is setup to accept such cards.

So, my AAA for DMV is charging 2.3% but runs as automobile clubs (not Travel category sadly), so better than Government Services category at the DMV itself. Further, they ban debit cards for DMV because they would have to charge a lower fee I presume. I don't know how they get away for not taking debit either.

Surcharges should be made illegal. I sell a lot of stuff online and I have to pay the 3.5% surcharge; I do not (and really cannot) pass it on to the consumer. It's ridiculous. It's part of the cost in doing business. I've walked out of more than one place being charged a surcharge fee and it not being disclosed until inserting the credit card.

I saw a 3.5% CC surcharge at an L&L Hawaiian BBQ location here yesterday. Unfortunately I don't recall signage anywhere near the register, only on the Clover device after the cashier activated it.

Could this be one of the first chains in the US to actually impose surcharges (albeit a pretty small one)? Or was this something a franchisee did?

I can't say I'm a frequent customer of L&L, but do they have standardized payment systems across the brand?

I'm not 100% sure about that, but I do know at least one more location around here also uses Clover.

I noticed a restaurant did a handwritten sign about a credit card surcharge at 4%. Obviously they are breaking the rules as it is 3.25% max.

VISA says the cap is 4%. Read here: https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCO...qa-for-web.pdf

4%, sure, but in theory they're not supposed to cap more than what it costs them to run the card (which is usually less than that). Of course, most people aren't going to know what the store pays, making enforcing that caveat a bit difficult.

I happen to know the MSP charges 2.85% as it is on all of their preprinted signage. This merchant just decided to max it out on their own accord, which is wrong.