Credit Card Checkout Fees: Have You Noticed Them?
As of the end of January, merchants in Missouri could start charging an extra fee when you use your credit card. Has it curtailed your use of a credit card?
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Missouri is one of 40 states in the nation that now allows merchants to charge an extra "checkout fee" when customers use their credit cards, according to the International Business Times.
The merchants got that authority starting in the last Sunday of January after settlement in a case involving millions of merchants against Visa, MasterCard and nine major credit card issuing banks.
The case involved claims of price fixing among issuers on credit card fees charged to merchants. In the settlement, credit card issuers agreed to reduce those "swipe fees" for eight months. CNN Money says the settlement also let retailers add a surcharge if a customer uses a credit card to cover the processing costs of about 1.5 percent to 3 percent of the purchase.
The fee is illegal in 10 states: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas.
Although Missouri is one of the states where the additional surcharge could happen, the National Retail Federation tells NBC News that it hasn't come across any retailers who plan to levy the fee.
"We have discussed the settlement with many, many merchants, and not a single merchant we have spoken to plans to surcharge," Craig Shearman, spokesman for the National Retail Federation, said in a statement reported by NBC News.
Have you noticed any fees like this in your recent shopping? Do you think it would be fair if retailers charged it? Would it affect your use of credit cards in your shopping?
PREVIOUS CONVERSATION STARTERS
Carol Size
6:19 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
WOW Kurt - kudos to you. You are the first St. Louis media person to report this.
The PD has been awol as usual. They are a worthless rag unless they are promoting their leftest agenda.
Elizabeth O'Fallon
8:31 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Carol, I remember reading this article in the Post last July. http://www.stltoday.com/business/columns/david-nicklaus/in-heavyweight-fight-over-card-fees-consumers-are-the-likely/article_f9729cde-d1ef-11e1-a598-001a4bcf6878.html
Carol Size
8:40 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Wow Elizabeth,what a fantastic memory you have. I didn't hear about this until Jan when it came into effect. I thought that would have been an appropriate time for the PD to have reported it in their front page section. I contacted them about reporting the story but as usual, no one bothered to respond to my request.
Carol Size
8:41 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Say Kurt, are you or anyone else going to report about area Democrats wanting to confiscate our guns?
Melissa Campbell
8:41 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
I wonder how it would show up on a receipt....I will be on the look out.
I do not think it would be fair if retailers charged an extra fee. I imagine they already figure in credit card fees into their prices.
Carol Size
8:51 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
In the January article I read on a business/money website, it said the retailer was required to post the charging of the fee at the register somewhere. I think this would be a software problem that may take a while to institute as an additional fee,
Bill
9:26 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
I won't be using my card less...just different places.
Melissa
10:01 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
I don't have a problem with a business charging a fee for credit card payments. It's essentially a cash discount. There are wholesale businesses that I purchase from that for years list their prices as cash prices and charge a percentage as a "lost cash discount" if you pay with a credit card.
David Mulcahy
10:34 am on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Carol, please do tell what the story is about democrats wanting to confiscate our guns. Will they be coming in on black helicopters?
Carol Size
9:18 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
I guess you don't read the Post-Dispatch. Don't feel bad, no one else does either.
I didn't know they were into black helicopters over there:
http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/govt-and-politics/elizabeth-crisp/gun-proposals-spur-interest-in-missouri-legislature/article_5d04e3c8-5d2d-58c1-8d81-7a781c23cac1.html
Chris P
1:45 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
David, Carol is a caricature, not a real person. Its disgusting filth has polluted the P-D comments for years. Now it is posting on Patch. I recommend flagging it so Patch understands that readers won't tolerate off-topic, vitriolic hate on every single article.
Carol Size
9:19 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Seems to me YOU are the one spewing off-topic vitriolic hate Chris P.
Carol Size
9:20 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
Oh and BTW I now Kurt and he knows I'm real.
Trish Carpenter
5:27 pm on Sunday, February 17, 2013
I know Aramark does charge this for food purchase even if you are only spendng 2.68 they charge you an extra 1.00
Josh
7:20 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
Carol, here's a suggestion: stop reading the PD if you don't like it, there are plenty of other places to get news.
Carol Size
8:17 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
Sorry, Josh, but it is just way too much fun watching what they edit out of their news selection such as today. No mention of the PRes. vacationing at a 1%'rs ONLY golf club in Florida while there are freezing XL Pipeline protestors protesting the White House and of course never any mention of the rising gas prices while Obama is president and wants to raise them even more with his cap and trade scheme - and no mention that gas prices have risen 43 cents in the last month alone. Nothing to see here scheeples, just move on along. But you are right about one thing, I have to use the Internet to find my real news. I prefer to read both the biased and truthful sources myself, that way I can determine what is really important. Thanks for your helpful suggestion however.
Elizabeth O'Fallon
8:25 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
I know this thread is about Credit Cards, but I spoke personally with my State Representative about HB 545 for about 30+ minutes last Thursday. My Rep is a co-sponsor and she admitted she hadn't even read the bill before deciding to co-sponsor it. She had no idea it would mean gun confiscation. The bill is a whopping 3 pages long printed out and written with pretty clear language--I was able to read it in a few minutes. When are we won't to stop putting up with politicians who don't do what we pay them to do such as read bills? Especially when the proposals are crazy and violate our Constitutional rights.
Kurt Greenbaum
8:25 am on Monday, February 18, 2013
Any chance we can get back to the topic, friends? Seriously?
Thomas Nitzsche
12:56 pm on Monday, February 18, 2013
As credit counselors for a national non-profit agency, we have not fielded any complaints or consumer mentions of this fee in particular, but as Melissa mentions there are some retailers that offer a cash discount. Off the top of my head I am thinking of gas stations, but I am sure there are others.
Thomas Nitzsche
ClearPoint Credit Counseling Solutions
www.clearpointccs.org