To be more specific, this is a US credit card topic.

Debit card fees are capped in the US, yet I’ve never received a discount from a merchant for paying with debit instead of credit.

As such, I just pay with credit and have never understood this argument.

▲

post-it 16 hours ago | parent | next [-]

That's what makes it a wealth transfer, from debit card users to you.

▲

iso1631 15 hours ago | parent [-]

In my country card fees are less than cash fees, so I guess that's a wealth transfer from card payers to cash payers?

	▲	tiffanyh 15 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		That’s a great point. Managing cash for a merchant also brings real costs as well. You have to take it to the bank or pay a service to pick up cash. You’re way more likely to have “leakage” when any cashier can pocket cash. Etc
	▲	8 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		[deleted]

▲

gcr 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

In NYC, most independent shops give a debit card discount / credit card surcharge.

▲

rowls66 15 hours ago | parent [-]

Card network rules in the US prohibit merchants from adding a surcharge for payment with a debit card. Most merchants are either unaware, or prefer not to care. If you are using a debit card at a business that assesses a card surcharge, point out that your card is a debit card when paying and refuse to pay the surcharge. If that does not help, there are online forms available from both Mastercard and Visa where you can submit a merchant complaint.

	▲	StrauXX 14 hours ago \| parent [-]
		The card processors policies are anti-competetive (albeit legal) abuses of their oligopoly. Reporting small vendors to them does not seem right to me.

▲

KolmogorovComp 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

> As such, I just pay with credit and have never understood this argument.

Because the merchant pass the higher processing cost to all customers.

▲

rcxdude 15 hours ago | parent [-]

And often the credit card companies try to enforce this by writing wording into their contracts that try to stop merchants offering different prices for different payment methods.

▲

hunter-gatherer 15 hours ago | parent [-]

This is true. In fact, if you come across a merchant that accepts credit with a minimum purchase amount or tacks an extra fee, you can take the receipt and call the terminal owner (visa/MasterCard) and report it. The receipt has a terminal ID, and it turns out the likes of Visa get really pissed if merchants do that.

I know this because I used to work on a US military base. There was a sole merchant on a particular installation that was doing this, but it was extreme. They'd force you to buy over 10 USD if you wanted to use a card, and it was the only place to grab a snack. One day there terminal was shut down, and for a period they only went to cash payments. Once they took credit again they removed the minimum purchase. Turns out somebody got pissed, and reported them.

Regarding the article, the ~390 USR sounds about right to me. I only use a credit card, pay it completely off at the end of the month. I've never once paid interest since in the 8 years I have used this card. Every few years I buy a plan ticket with the rewards.

	▲	rcxdude 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Yeah, it propagates the problem because the price signal never makes it to the consumer.

▲

cpburns2009 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Places around me have been starting to itemize the credit card fee. Only car dealerships so far have waived the fee for debit over credit in my experience.

▲

ipython 15 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Until 2013, visa and Mastercard forbade merchants from charging more for credit card payments if they accept their credit cards.

	▲	lazide 15 hours ago \| parent [-]
		And it wasn’t out of the goodness of their hearts that they changed - they finally lost enough big court cases over it, it was to avoid heavy handed legislation.

▲

greenavocado 16 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Once ever I was requested to either pay cash or via debit in a cafe in Montreal

▲

fHr 16 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Good for you as you're smart but less smart people don't do this and then get scammed legally.