It seems like everything I buy these days has a credit card "surcharge" that is being masked as a "cash discount". It's annoying because I never carry a balance on my credit cards but it's nice getting points/miles for using them, but some of these charges are getting to be 8+% which is ridiculous.
Technically there is a difference between a cash discount and a surcharge, it all depends on what the posted price is. Visa says merchants have to post the credit card price and can choose to charge less for cash, but they should not post a price then charge the credit card user more. Semantics, I suppose, but I'm well on my way to not using cards if it's going to cost me that much more.
Most of this rant comes from a small vending machine purchase today that said $1.25 and when I swiped my card, I notice it says total charge was $1.35. I called the vending company to find out why and they said "Oh there is a $.10 discount for using cash, there should have been a sticker that says that" (there isn't) and my response is it says it's $1.25, so a $.10 discount would mean cash should pay $1.15, right? Of course, silence on the other end.
It's not just vending machines either, tons of places now do it including most gas stations around here.
