They are allowed, but vary considerably from place to place.
Where I live they are rare as hens teeth, only the liquor store has one that I know of. One grocery chain does not accept credit cards either. But I did some traveling over the holiday and in a different part of the US I was finding them left and right. Of four restaurants I went to, one did not accept cards at all, and two had surcharges in excess of even my decent 3% cashback on restaurants rate.
I don't differentiate between a surcharge on a card and a discount on cash, two sides of the same coin.
Unfortunately this kind of behavior is allowed and even encouraged by the idea that card surcharges are an expense over cash. This is largely illusory however since cash also has expenses, and by some estimates costs more than credit card interchange.
I would prefer that prices be fixed regardless of payment method.
Where I live they are rare as hens teeth, only the liquor store has one that I know of. One grocery chain does not accept credit cards either. But I did some traveling over the holiday and in a different part of the US I was finding them left and right. Of four restaurants I went to, one did not accept cards at all, and two had surcharges in excess of even my decent 3% cashback on restaurants rate.
I don't differentiate between a surcharge on a card and a discount on cash, two sides of the same coin.
Unfortunately this kind of behavior is allowed and even encouraged by the idea that card surcharges are an expense over cash. This is largely illusory however since cash also has expenses, and by some estimates costs more than credit card interchange.
I would prefer that prices be fixed regardless of payment method.
Statistics: Posted by rogue_economist — Tue Jul 09, 2024 10:05 am — Replies 135 — Views 6137