chaostrophy
Member
empty vessel said:Services should be paid for directly by those who consume them, not hidden and distributed to those who don't. Credit card services are currently being paid for by people who don't own credit cards. That is not good policy. It's an externality.
Right. My understanding is the credit card companies (not sure if it's actual banks, or the processors like MasterCard and Visa) don't allow retailers to charge customers directly for the processing fees, as a term of their contract. I'd support a free market, information-based compromise: allow banks/processors to charge whatever fees they want, but require that the fees are listed separately on the receipt whenever a card is used, and collected on top of standard prices, like sales tax.