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by officeplant 2314 days ago
Meanwhile it's become the new hot thing locally (Southern USA) to charge credit and debit card users a "convenience fee" sometimes as high as 35 cents a transaction. Everyone went from offering discounts to cash users to simply charging card users more.
4 comments

Interestingly, in 2013 both credit card minimums (up to a maximum of $10) and surcharges (up to a maximum of 4%) became legally federally, although there are 10 states that still prohibit surcharges (including New York, California, and Texas).

So seems like $0.35 is allowable on any transaction of $8.75 or more.

[1] https://www.thebalance.com/credit-card-surcharges-315423

I think it's also worth noting that many of those states allow cash discounts.

https://www.ncsl.org/research/financial-services-and-commerc...

What is the difference between a "discount for cash payers" and "convenience fee for card users", when the only two options are cash and card? In both scenarios, price for purchasing with cash is less than price for purchasing with card. Seems like semantics to me.
I've started seeing this trend in a lot of small shops here in NYC as well. There used to be a ton of "cash only" places, but now I'm seeing more places that I would expect to be cash only accepting credit cards with a "convenience fee."
I thought it was illegal but I may have been wrong.