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Merchants are allowed to add an extra fee to credit card purchases starting Jan. 27. The surcharge is the result of a class-action lawsuit brought by major retailers against MasterCard, Visa, and several other banks and credit institutions.
Starting Sunday, consumers might have to pay more to use credit cards.
Merchants who accept MasterCard and Visa will soon be able to tack a surcharge onto your bill. The surcharge is fallout from a class-action settlement reached last July that ended years of legal battles between merchants on the one hand, and banks and credit card companies on the other.
Along with paying a group of retailers $6.05 billion, Visa, MasterCard, and several banks and credit card institutions agreed to allow merchants to charge an extra credit card fee starting Jan. 27.
Does this Apply to Discover and Amex as well because I didn't see it mentioned in your post?
From everything I'm reading it doesn't look like AMEX is going to allow the fee to be charged, I'm betting that a lot more people will be using AMEX in hte future if the retailers start to charge these fees. this might backfire for retailers as this will sway more people to use AMEX which it turn will cost them more than if they would have just left the fees alone and allowed people to use MC and VISA fee free
It should be noted that this FEE is a charge from the Merchant, not the credit card companies.
The surcharge proposed by last year’s settlement is supposed to be equal to the cost of processing a credit card transaction, which usually comes out to about 1.5 to 3 percent of the purchase. According to the settlement, merchants can’t charge consumers more than 4 percent. They also won’t be able to add extra fees to debit card transactions,
Credit card surcharges are illegal in some states, ABC News reports. The surcharges won’t affect consumers making credit card purchases in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
Merchants who want to start charging extra have to take a couple of steps to warn consumers about the change. They will have to post a sign at their storefront announcing the extra fee. They’ll also have to disclose the fee at the checkout counter and on the receipt, according to the EPC.
Some of the country’s largest retailers are holding off on adding a fee to credit card purchases made in their stores. Wal-Mart, Target, Sears, and Home Depot told NBC News that they do not plan on taking advantage of the new rule. Rite Aid doesn’t plan on adding surcharges as well, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Some retailers might still be waiting to see how the case plays out in court. U.S. District Court Judge John Gleeson gave the settlement a tentative okay in November. The National Retail Federation is not a party to the lawsuit, but claims that their members would be negatively affected by the settlement. They plan to challenge the judge’s verdict in court, according to a press release.
A final ruling on this case will be made later this year, meaning modifications to the settlement might surface later on.
Charging this fee just might be the death of many stores. Dont see it happening on a large scale
@dodgeball wrote:Charging this fee just might be the death of many stores. Dont see it happening on a large scale
doubtful, 95% of people (guesstimate) use debit or cash now days anyway.... only people who are hard core CC users will notice
@dodgeball wrote:Charging this fee just might be the death of many stores. Dont see it happening on a large scale
Large retailers like Walmart and Sears stated they will not pass the surcharge to the customer. So I hope they stick to what they say