Pay 4% More on Credit Card Purchases? High Profile Legislative Opportunity

Fox News had a wallet busting report on tonight about how merchants will be allowed to charge up to 4% more on credit card purchases starting this weekend in all but 10 states.

If merchants start charging 4% for credit card purchases, that makes the 1% cash back Discover offers pretty worthless.

If merchants start charging 4% for credit card purchases, that makes the 1% cash back Discover offers pretty worthless.

Illinois is not one of those ten states.

The only restrictions seems to be that the merchant has to tell you that he is charging you more.

I’m wondering if this is an unintended byproduct of Senator Dick Durbin’s bill to prohibit merchants from charging more to those using debit cards.

Since it is prohibited in ten states, such as California and Florida, that means an opportunity exits for some Illinois legislator to introduce and try to pass legislation to prohibit charging more for those using credit cards.

Merchants wanting to reward those using cash could always give a rebate.

If little signs start popping up where I shop, I’ll be carrying around a lot more cash.


Comments

Pay 4% More on Credit Card Purchases? High Profile Legislative Opportunity — 2 Comments

  1. “If little signs start popping up where I shop, I’ll be carrying around a lot more cash.”

    Sorry but I will be walking out and going to another store.

    I like to pay with a credit card and will continue to do so until the little perks such as ‘points’ and extending manufacures warranty’s no longer exist.

    Many times with that warranty extention you don’t have to buy a near worthless extended warranty at an inflated price.

    Plus the government really needs to get out of our business.

  2. Businesses have paid these surcharges in the past, but they cannot continue to pay the freight for the folks who charge purchases vs those who pay cash or they won’t be in business much longer.

    Look at this as a fee for convenience that credit customers should have been paying all along, but when the economy was booming this was an expense that businesses covered and now can’t afford.

    Credit customers have the choice of not using credit if they don’t want to pay what credit costs business. And yes, they can choose to pay cash, just as convenient as credit!!

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