Credit Card Surcharge in Veezi

[Joachim Schneider]

I'd like to start charging an extra percentage for credit card transactions but Veezi doesn't support that. Anyone using Veezi that found a work around for that problem?
Thanks,
Jay

[James Biggins]

Can you do that in the USA?

It's illegal in the UK.

[Gordon McLeod]

In Canada the federal government passed a bill that allowed merchants to pass on the cost of processing fees

[Mike Blakesley]

Can RTS do this? I have traditionally been against such surcharges, but other businesses here in town have started to do it, so if we are ever in the minority, I might consider the surcharge if our software can handle it.

[Harold Hallikainen]

From https://fortune.com/recommends/credi...rd-surcharges/ , it appears that agreements with credit card payment processors prohibited a surcharge for use of a card, but in a settlement to a class action lawsuit, they are now permitted (but still prohibited by state law in some states).

I recently saw a quote from a contractor who offered a discount for cash, which, I suspect, was an effort to hide income from tax authorities.

[Marcel Birgelen]

In the whole of the EU, this practice has officially been banned, but there still are some merchants that seemingly don't bother about the law. I also think it's customer-hostile to do so and I'm pretty allergic to random bullshit-items on my receipt like "convenience fees", "service fees", "resort fees" or "right-to-breathe-air fees".

If your POS or ticketing system doesn't support automatic surcharges for certain payment methods, you can always create a product called "Credit Card Processing Fee" and instruct your employees to add it manually.

[Harold Hallikainen]

I agree on the dislike of "resort fees" and "convenience fees" where they are mandatory fees which should just be built into the price.

I wonder how the costs of handling cash compare with credit card fees.

It's interesting that the above linked Fortune article says surcharges on debit card transactions are prohibited. Do card processors charge merchants for handling debit cards?

I've often wondered how card processing fees are divided up. How much goes to the "processing network?" How much goes to the issuing bank? Some cards offer cash back or other rewards which I assume come out of these fees.

[Randy Stankey]

Almost nobody charges realistic prices, nowadays. Especially, not on the internet.

There's nothing wrong with charging what goods and services actually cost, especially with the political and economic unrest in the world, today. There's nothing wrong with earning profit from one's own hard work. People deserve to get paid for what they do.

The problem is that companies are NOT charging fair prices plus reasonable profit. They charge whatever price they think they can weasel out of customers' pockets. Too many people are stupid enough to pay those prices! Websites like Amazon are the chief offenders!

Amazon uses algorithmic pricing. Essentially, their system calculates the highest price it thinks it can get away with. If people keep paying those prices, the algorithm jacks them up until they reach the price that the market will bear. It's WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

Yes, bank and credit card fees are a cost of business which companies have the right to recover but it is also wrong to charge extra on top of already inflated prices as a means of extracting an extra few bucks out of customers' pockets. I agree with others. Average out your bank fees and raise your prices accordingly.

If you want to offer a cash discount, I would agree with that because it's a way to entice people to do business.

It's better to reward people for doing things you want them to do than to punish them just for the privilege of doing business with you.

Remember: Movie theaters are a discretionary expense. People don't have to spend money at your theater. If they think that prices are getting to high, they'll stop spending money at your business. Going to the movies is already expensive but, if you press people with an explanation about why popcorn costs so much, they'll understand even if they don't agree with the prices.

Adding an extra credit card fee, on top of already high prices, only serves to discourage business. People will likely say, "Oh, all right..." the first time or two but, sooner or later, they'll just stop coming.

[Frank Cox]

A friend of mine runs one of the local lumberyards. (We actually have two here, amazingly enough.)

He once told me that he gets people in who ask him for a quote with his "best price", so he gives it to them with a notice that cash or cheque is required for payment, no credit card accepted for the "best price".

[Harold Hallikainen]

One lumberyard I visited had a cartoon on the counter where a customer says "The place down the street had better prices, but they've gone out of business."

[Randy Stankey]

...he gives it to them with a notice that cash or cheque is required for payment, no credit card accepted for the "best price...

Nothing wrong with that! I think it's perfectly fine to write up a quote which says that the price is $X.xx with a $Y.xx discount for cash.

It makes the customer feel like they've got a say in things. Giving people a sense of control, even if it's only a little, is a good way to encourage repeat business.

"That guy gives ME a discount!"

[Armand Daiguillon]

It is legal in your state to add a surcharge - but i'd be cautious about it. Check your competitors - if they aren't doing it, you may not want to. Its the sort of thing that will generate customer backlash especially if its not the norm in your area.

[Steve Guttag]

I agree on the dislike of "resort fees" and "convenience fees" where they are mandatory fees which should just be built into the price.

I wonder how the costs of handling cash compare with credit card fees.

It's interesting that the above linked Fortune article says surcharges on debit card transactions are prohibited. Do card processors charge merchants for handling debit cards?

I've often wondered how card processing fees are divided up. How much goes to the "processing network?" How much goes to the issuing bank? Some cards offer cash back or other rewards which I assume come out of these fees.

Harold, the thing about resort an other fees/taxes associated with staying in a hotel is that they, mostly, affect people that have nothing to do with those that put in the fees. What does a local person care if the out-of-towner gets nailed with some sort of tax/fee. And, if an industry has a practice of charging fees for things, then there is little one can do about it since "they all do it." The industry is better served to not include those fees in their advertised prices since everyone appears to be cheaper. Personally, I'd favor a federal legislation that requires everyone to show the actual price as their display price and not itemized how they got to it. If you want to charge $100/room per night...then that is the price including all fees.

Then again, in the US, we are in the minority of charging whatever sales taxes are involved at the time of checkout. In most countries, if you buy something in a store, the display price is THE price, not the price plus tax. We have so many taxing jurisdictions...federal, state, county, city..it would be a nightmare/difficult to have an all included tax in the price for interstate commerce unless we were to adopt a national sales tax that covers all jurisdictions, despite the huge variance between say an NYC versus small-town Iowa. You'd have to declare the shipping point at the beginning of the purchase for one to have a chance.

In cinema, for the longest time (majority of its existence, still), the price on tickets and food...the displayed price was an all-included price. If the boxoffice showed the tickets as $5.00...A 5$ bill was all you needed to buy the ticket. Likewise at the concession stand. A $2.00 drink was a $2.00 drink. I remember when that changed, at least around here. When the bigger chains that had been gobbling up the smaller chains came in...they decided that they wanted a product to cost a certain amount in EVERY jurisdiction and let whatever local taxes were involved to be added upon that. Credit cards made that transition easier because back in the good old days, everything, amazingly, fit the currency down to 25¢ (or in more rare cases down to the nickel). Adding in taxes of odd percentages would foil all of that so everyone would be dealing in pennies too. Keeping it to the quarter kept the need for stocking change way down. With credit cards, who cares? If the purchase of a value sized combo is $23.82...swipe away!

[Geoff Jones]

On a related note, it makes zero sense to me that a "convenience charge" is added to online ticket purchases (vs purchases at the box office).

By selling tickets online (which requires that they are bought early), aren't theaters benefitting?

• A paid employee isn't required for the transaction.
• Theaters avoid congestion at the box office, which leads to happier customers and increases their time window to buy concessions.
• Theaters have a more accurate prediction of crowd size, which could aid in staffing, and potentially even in booking.

I saw Civil War this weekend and bought tickets at the box office because the crowds were small enough that I knew I would get the seat I wanted. I also bought tickets for Raiders of the Lost Ark on the 30th. I saved $1.75 per ticket, but it wasn't easy. The woman in the box office was very confused. I don't think she'd ever heard of "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and she seemed to think that April 30th was more than a month away. She eventually figured it out.

So much about how this business is run seems backwards to me.

One of the many complaints that comes up over and over again about moviegoing is the cost. It seems like chains would look for efficiencies they could pass on to consumers.

[Ryan Gallagher]

The problem is that companies are NOT charging fair prices plus reasonable profit. They charge whatever price they think they can weasel out of customers' pockets. Too many people are stupid enough to pay those prices! Websites like Amazon are the chief offenders!

Amazon uses algorithmic pricing. Essentially, their system calculates the highest price it thinks it can get away with. If people keep paying those prices, the algorithm jacks them up until they reach the price that the market will bear. It's WRONG! WRONG! WRONG!

If you want even more evidence of this, take a look at the wild-west of Ebay. On more occasions than I care to admit I've almost been duped by a BIN or bidding price that is actually a few bucks HIGHER than the amazon price for the same item. Some of these sellers even directly list Home Depot or Amazon items and when the buyer pays their ebay premium they simply purchase the item of the other merchant and enter the buyer's shipping address in the "gift" information.

It's one of those "passive income" scams, that you can probably run from anywhere in the world with a VPN and a valid (or hijacked) US person email address. At least it's not so scammy that you are left without a product in the end, but you feel like a dolt for having overpaid for it.