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NJ has not / did not pass a state law banning the fee.
Also its not visa/MC that is adding the fee, the merchant's you deal with now have the option of adding it.
But, I was under the impression that merchants will not add the surcharge if one uses Discovery Card, and American Express, and will only add it if one uses Visa/Master Charge, because they were the ones that fought the issue for 7 years?
Amex has a clause in it merchant agreement that does not allow it.
There are other threads about this, but none of the big box stores will do it. And I'm guessing not many merchants will either. You Tell them NO, I wont pay it, remove it.
If they don't take your biz else where.
Or use a Amex (who btw have higher transaction fees then Visa/MC).
As others said, the law simply allows merchants to pass on the fee that they are charged by the credit card companies which can range from 2%-4%. The credit card company itself will not be adding any fees when you make a purchase, it is all up to the merchant. As of right now, no major retailers have said that they will be charging the fee. Some states have passed legislation forbidding it, but NJ is not one of them. AMEX's agreement with merchants forbids them from charging a fee, so AMEX will not be impacted. Debit cards are also not impacted, so if you pay with a debit card, even one with a Visa/MC logo, no charge as long as you enter your PIN for debit. Visa, Mastercard and Discover can all have the fee charged if the merchant chooses to do so.
As others said, the law simply allows merchants to pass on the fee that they are charged by the credit card companies which can range from 2%-4%. The credit card company itself will not be adding any fees when you make a purchase, it is all up to the merchant. As of right now, no major retailers have said that they will be charging the fee. Some states have passed legislation forbidding it, but NJ is not one of them. AMEX's agreement with merchants forbids them from charging a fee, so AMEX will not be impacted. Debit cards are also not impacted, so if you pay with a debit card, even one with a Visa/MC logo, no charge as long as you enter your PIN for debit. Visa, Mastercard and Discover can all have the fee charged if the merchant chooses to do so.
I have a Discover card, and they told me, that they would not. Discover does not charge for international fees, like V and MC do.
I have a Discover card, and they told me, that they would not. Discover does not charge for international fees, like V and MC do.
Again...
It has nothing to do with the credit card companies themselves, it's about retailers. If you own a store and you want to be able to accept credit card payments, you agree to pay a processing fee that is a percentage of the total transaction. How much that fee is, is determined by the processing company and the credit network; Visa/Mastercard, Discover and AMEX. Each of them may have a slightly different rate, just for example...
Visa/Mastercard - 3%
Discover - 3%
AMEX - 4%
AMEX is always generally the highest one. What this means is that if a customer buys something for $10 and uses a Visa card, the store has to pay the processing company 3% of that amount or .30 cents, it would be 4% or .40 cents for AMEX. Currently that charge is paid by the retailer and they are not technically allowed to pass it on to the customer. This is what the recent law changed.
Moving forward a retailer can now charge their customers who use credit cards the processing fee. Now, virtually all the major retailers said they won't, but the way it would work is that you would go into a store to buy something for $100 on your Discover card, the retailer now has the right to charge you an extra ~3% to cover their cost, so you actually would pay $103 for that $100 purchase. It is NOT Discover card adding the fee, it is the store you are buying the product from.
This effects ALL credit cards with the exception of AMEX because AMEX's agreements expressly forbid retailers from passing on the processing fees on AMEX transactions. The only other "credit card" that is not effected is Visa/Mastercard debit cards, when you swipe them as debit and enter your PIN. Debit transactions have a different fee structure and are not part of this.
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