With the rise of credit card surcharges, maybe it's time we consider debit cards with rewards again? I just left a parking lot and they were charging a 4% credit card surcharge fee. This is getting ridiculous in NYC.. Are there any banks, online or not, which offer some sort of debt card rewards along with liability protection?

One possibility:

https://www.suntrust.com/personal-ba...les-debit-card

Discover has a 1% cashback debit card.

You can pay cash to avoid the fee...

Durbin cut down on the availability of those, but the ones posted thus far might be good options.

Also, based on my own experiences around here, I suspect many of those places will still surcharge you even if you use a debit card. The act of using a card at all is the problem for them, not that you used one that's more expensive than an alternative. In fact, it's very possible it costs them the same to run cards no matter what the type, so running a debit card might not even save them any money.

(OTOH, at least they accept cards at all now. NYC and SF have traditionally had reputations for being very heavily cash based.)

Not sure about anyone else but I think I'd have a lot less of a problem with surcharging if merchants actually followed the card network rules on it. As it is, it just alienates customers, even if merchants do have a legitimate basis for complaining about interchange fees.

I rarely carry cash more than a few bucks. The parking for a few hours was over 50.

Yes, but I cannot find their liability waiver. That's a concern for me.

It's actually illegal in some States like CT and NJ. 4% is crazy. Not CC processor charges that. I'm with my bank for one of my businesses, and I think I 2.95% + 0.15 per successful transaction.

Yeah, very fluid situation - lots of ongoing cases and differences state to state. It's a funny study in human nature. I piss and moan about what my business pays for taking cards each month but I sure LOVE all the benefits I get as a consumer.

BTW.... Costco (Elavon) is the best deal I've ever found for my business. I think it might be a tick lower than 2.95%.

Might be illegal but it's pretty much unenforceable now thanks to recent court rulings.

Also, once you consider the per-transaction fee, it's very possible that smaller purchases can cost some merchants more than 4%.

50 bucks for parking isn't cheap. Eventually, this has to stop. 30+ years, no surcharge. Now, they are all over the place.

Is that a recent development? Granted, been over 15 years since I lived in NJ, but I recall gas stations having different advertised price per gallon for cash vs. credit.

The vending machines at my school all have CC, Debit Card, and contact payment capability.

They have had it for a year or two.

They just added a sticker saying that the price shown was the cash price and that there was a surcharge for all other payment methods of 10 cents.

The kids shrug and say what's ten cents. To me, its a teaching moment about how the vending machine company is charging them up to a 7.5% fee to tap their I phone to get a drink. That's on top of the ridiculous charge ($1.50-$2.00) for the drink.

My point is that these companies have started added surcharges regardless of whether its Debit or Credit.

PS: Suggesting to anyone to pay cash seems like its got to be against some unspoken FT rule or something.

Their platinum card offers 1% cash back
https://www.americanexpress.com/us/p...all-cards.html

I never carry cash and much prefer the protections like chargebacks that credit offers me. Plus, you steal my card, I'm out nothing. You steal my cash, I'm out the full amount. I hate cash

I hate surcharges and won't shop at places that have them (parking and gas stations might be the exception due to the limited amount of the former and the ubiquitous charges at the latter). But I think any surcharge over and above the interchange should be illegal