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Card Users Are Paying Illegal Credit Card Processing Fees Every Day and Don’t Know It According to New GoBankingRates.com Report
Checking account fees were last year’s nuisance, but personal finance website GoBankingRates.com find consumers should be focused on another fee-related injustice. In a new article, GoBankingRates.com examines the laws surrounding credit card processing fees and credit card minimums across multiple states, finding merchants often impose prohibited fees on consumers who choose plastic over cash.
EL SEGUNDO, CA (May 15, 2013) Plastic is undoubtedly a popular method of payment for Americans. According to data compiled by Card Explorer, 70 percent of people have a general-purpose credit card, with the median number of cards at two. Additionally, there were 37.9 billion debit card transactions in 2009, which represented $1.4 trillion in value. However, a new GoBankingRates.com report finds many consumers who pay with a card at gas stations and convenience stores are being unlawfully charged credit card processing fees and minimums by merchants.
The GoBankingRates.com publication details the ongoing battle between credit issuers Visa and MasterCard, as well as banks, against merchants over interchange fees, and ultimately uncovers that merchants may now legally pass on credit card transaction costs to customers in 40 states. However, findings also reveal that merchants can only charge credit card patrons the processing fee, not debit card users.
Even so, as GoBankingRates.com managing editor, Casey Bond, explains, “My local Arco in Los Angeles, California, for example, is just one of the many establishments that imposes a fee to swipe plastic, despite the practice being outlawed in the state.”
Further, Amad Ebrahimi of MerchantMaverick.com tells GoBankingRates.com that ten states still prohibit these surcharges entirely, even for credit card use (which include California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas), though “the laws are grey in that area, and vary on a state by state basis.”
Similar laws exist regarding credit card minimums, as debit card holders may not be to subject to a required minimum purchase in order to pay by card – another rule that is often ignored by merchants.
Ms. Bond states, “The bottom line is that it isn’t right for business owners to impose the cost of doing business on their customers…but it’s up to their customers to call them out.”
See the full investigative report.
For questions about this guide or to speak with Casey Bond, please use the contact information below.
About GoBankingRates.com
GoBankingRates.com is a national website dedicated to connecting readers with the best interest rates on financial services nationwide, as well as informative personal finance content, news and tools. GoBankingRates.com collects interest rate information from more than 4,000 U.S. banks and credit unions, making it the only online rates aggregator with the ability to provide the most comprehensive and authentic local interest rate information.