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by Symbiote 1998 days ago
In the EU, there are lower charges for the merchant when a debit card is used. Sometimes, this results in a small charge for using a credit card.

(Note that TreeCard is an English company, where they have inherited this cost difference.)
2 comments
jsjohnst 1998 days ago
> In the EU, there are lower charges for the merchant when a debit card is used.

This is definitely the case in the US. The fees vary between different acquiring banks, merchant gateways and cards, but generally they follow a pattern similar to the following:

CC - $0.25 + 1-4% of the transaction amount

Debit - $0.25 - 0.50 and no percentage

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chrisseaton 1998 days ago
> Sometimes, this results in a small charge for using a credit card.

That's not the way it's been for years - it became illegal in the UK to do this a while ago.

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jsjohnst 1998 days ago
> That's not the way it's been for years

If it’s a Visa or MC backed card, it’s always been against their merchant policies to surcharge a CC and merchants can lose their ability to process cards if they do. It definitely hasn’t stopped merchants from doing it though (in the US mainly, but have seen it elsewhere too).

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