is it against the law to charge a customer an extra for using a credit card ?

Answer 1

No, they can do what they want. Companies get charged by the credit card company for its use. So some are passing that charge along to the customer. Personally, I think that's a bad idea and would not buy at some place where they did that.

Answer 2

Having worked in the credit card / merchant account business since 1996 I can tell you three things:

1. no it is not illegal.
2. it is against your merchant agreement and could cause you to lose your processing privileges. (not likely but possible if enough people complained through the right channels)
3. it is not a good business practice because nobody likes to be charged "extra" for anything.

Accepting credit cards is part of "the cost of doing business" according to the strategy of charging extra you should charge extra every time your phone bill, electric bill, shipping cost's vary.

Set a price for goods that makes you a profit, and then stick to it. If you feel that the processing fee's are eating up your profits you have a few options:

1. shop around for a less costly processor ( be careful )
2. do a better job of promoting high profit, impulse purchase merchandising so they person who is not counting pennies to make a purchase will help balance the scales.

Answer 3

no, business who do not get a massive amount of credit card usage tend to charge the extra fee due to the fact that the company charges the business a fee for using the machine and recovery charges. They are just trying to cover the cost of convienence for the customer.

Answer 4

retailers pay a fee for every credit card transaction that's processed - most just eat it, but some will charge the customers extra to recoup their expense.

Answer 5

nope, perfectly legal most companies call it a convenience fee.

Answer 6

probably it is NOT against the law

Answer 7

nope its legal a lot of gas stations do it here