Recently, while going to work, I decided to stop in a convenience store on North Green Street to purchase a soft drink. When I walked to the counter to pay I saw a sign made out of cardboard with a message written in Magic Marker stating, "All purchases with Visa or Mastercard less than $5.00 must pay an additional 50-cent charge."
I was so mad that someone would do this that I asked the clerk why. He told me that the bank charges a higher amount when a customer charges less than $5 in the store, so the store is forced to charge a "fee" to compensate for these charges.
I contacted Visa, Mastercard and the North Carolina Attorney General's Office of Consumer Protection for information.
Convenience store owners and operators do not have the authority to do this, so customers beware. If a store must incur higher costs, then its options would be to raise prices across the board or choose not to accept credit or debit cards. They cannot charge "surcharges" to customers using debit or credit cards.
People should be aware that this practice is not legal and, if you see it in convenience stores, please report it as I did.
Editor's note: Ten states' laws make it illegal for merchants to add surcharges onto purchases made with a credit or debit card. North Carolina is not one of those states. However, Noelle Talley of the N.C. Attorney General's office says the practice is not generally allowed, because it violates the merchants agreement with the credit-card companies. Visa and MasterCard contractually prohibit surcharges; Discover and American Express both discourage them. Talley said the Office of Consumer Protection advises consumers to report credit-card surcharges to the bank that issued their credit card.
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