this post was submitted on 30 Sep 2026
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I live in the US. Some cities have banned credit card surcharges. The bans have been wholly ineffective and achieving the desired result. I'll illustrate what happened at my local ice cream shop. This is a real example and not made-up for this comment.
An ice cream sundae costs $4.64. There is a 3% cash discount. So it's $4.50 when paid in cash and $4.64 when paid by card.
This is a credit card surcharge but by another name. And legal according to the rules of Australia's scheme as well. The only real thing that can be done here is to not patronise businesses who impose a surcharge that you think is unfair.
That sure sounds like the desired result to me. The big sign on the ice cream stand says $4.64. Then I go and buy an ice cream I get charged, exactly $4.64, clear and simple. Mission fucking accomplished.
Oh I have cash in my back pocket, and I get a discount for that, sure mate, I'll happily pay a bit less than I was planning to pay anyway.
Are visa and MasterCard overcharging in their duopoly, yes. But that's not this battle (and they capped their fees a year or so ago in Aus to help combat that too).
I bet all the prices that end with a .99 will stay that way. The ticket price on the shelf must match the card price at the register.
i think what will happen, and this is a real world example for a coffee.. today., the large coffee is listed as $5.20, i get charged $5.28. tomorrow, it will be listed for $5.40
Follow up on this comment: I wasn't far off, the coffee is now priced $5.30
That's just taking an opportunity to increase prices, like all the petrol stations that hike prices the same day as something happens in the middle east, long before any cost increases make their way down the distribution chain.
Same as what happened with the introduction of GST. My kebab shop raised the price from $4.00 to $4.50.
Should have been $4.40
Its nothing to do with covid. That's just the time that tyro popularised the idea.
What actually is the desired result? I figured it's to remove another barrier to people moving away from cash payments
Legislators don't care about people using cash.
Predictable pricing is better for consumers. There's nothing worse than additional fees at the register. Some countries got this wrong and figuring out how much something is going to cost is a real mess. Like price plus tip plus tax plus payment fee.