[twobat]

Do the retailers actually pay the fees? I always assumed that this is pushed into the price to the consumer.

[toper-centage]

The price is the same for cash, card and elite card customers. They can of course raise the price for all 3, but its a fine balance to do that without hurting sales.

[vagab0nd]

I know in some restaurants they give you a discount if you pay cash. Not sure if it's legal or not.

[lopmotr]

It's the same thing. Retails also don't pay for their stock, rent, wages, or anything because it's all pushed into the price to the consumer.

[xorcist]

They do, in the sense that the consumer is charged the same price independently of which card they paid with.

[twobat]

If they really wanted they could ask what the payment method is and put the additional fees on the client's bill.

[ryandrake]

I would immediately stop doing business with a retailer who dared to do this. What’s next? Charging a customer N% more because he drove to your store and parking spaces are expensive? At some point you need to accept certain costs of doing business and not always be looking to segment your customers to selectively pass expenses to them.

[twobat]

What next? Tax more because your state is more expensive? These things are never simple to answer.

[pwinnski]

Doing so would violate their contract with the credit card companies. In some states, it might even violate the law.

[gamblor956]

This is both true and false. In 2013, MC and Visa agreed in a settlement that they could not prohibit merchants from imposing a surcharge on credit card customers.

However, 10 states prohibit such surcharges, including CA, NY, FL, MA, and TX...i.e., the states with most CC transactions.

[twobat]

This feels like 100% against the free market spirit.