So... It's not really the price you say it is then?
Posted Apr 21, 2023, 10:00 AM UTC
212
Assuming you're talking about the Surcharge.
1.1% is pretty mild in this case. Every time you pay with Credit Card, you will automatically have up to 4% of additional fees with the purpose of recouping the losses from the payment processing fees. This is pretty much the norm for the whole word.
The only exception is the European Union, where it is forbidden by EU-law to protect customers from unfair prices and price discrimination.
2
It's pretty much unheard of in the US too
1
What is unheard of? Credit Card Surcharge in the USA? You sure about that?
Because from what I know that depends entirely on the state you're in. Connecticut, Puerto Rico and Massachusetts made it illegal, while a handful of other states (like 7 or 8) made some laws to limit the surcharges or make them unenforcable, while the rest of the US doesn't have any laws against surcharges - so you might have paid them without even knowing because they don't tell you.
1
The real point is you cannot pay in any alternative manner. Only card.
-1
[deleted]
2
I think it's the same here. Not accepting cash is probably illegal.
1
Why not just list the price as the price then (this is Australia btw and its considered poor form).
-2
3 Reasons:
- It would then look like this, which is ugly and makes for some pretty weird prices. Some would also need to be rounded in some way, because I don't think you can pay half a penny/cent/whatever.
- That surcharge is miniscule. We're talking about pennies/cents/whatever per person. To calculate that for every price and every time a price or the surcharge changes is just asinine, it's more work than anything else.
- The Surcharge isn't for using the Rink/their Equipment, it's the Credit Card Companies charging random processing fees for using credit cards. Sure, it might be the fault of the rink operator to only allow for credit card payments, but still. What they are doing is to essentially split the whole thing into 2, so the customers see what they are paying for. The PRices for the Rink/the Equipment is independent from the surcharge that pays the fees. Putting everything in one would make you think that the rink is more expensive than it actually is, while you'd not realize that the credit card company gets a 'share' of the money earned.
I'm luckily situated in the EU, so I don't even have to deal with stuff like that, but I can see why they'd do it like that.
0
That whole splitting it up into surcharge and actual prices is invalid IMHO.
There are costs to accepting any form of payment.
Paying by cash? They have to pay someone to take said cash to a bank to cash in. There are costs for insurance covering them for having X amount of cash on site at any one time. Employee skimming from tills etc.
Cheques? Same someone has to take said cheques to bank and the opportunity costs for having to wait for it to clear.
They should just accept the surcharge as part of the cost of "doing business". I doubt that the expenses of running said rink come up to an even number per person.
It would be like having a base charge to come in, a %age fee added on top for employee wages, another charge for electricity costs for refrigeration, another charge for the gas that goes in the zamboni etc
0
[removed]
1
Like it's literally impossible to pay 20
0
If you live outside of the EU then most card payments come with additional fees, because it costs the payment merchant charges per transaction
But they don’t accept cash. Only cards, there’s no way to avoid the surcharge. So because every purchase will be 1.1% higher, they should just have it added to the prices listed.
You could avoid the charge by going somewhere that accepts cash
They make it obvious that they have the surcharge, so adding the charge to the price wouldn't make it cheaper. So you're no better off if they added the charge to the price
Won’t be any better off, but in Australia (where op is from) it is considered poor form.
That doesn't make it r/assholedesign. r/shittydesign maybe. But it's a common practice