Credit Card Surcharge

churmy_2

Have recently noticed that more and more retailers/suppliers are adding a surcharge to the cost of the transaction if you pay by credit card.

Is this legal? Can we refuse to pay it? Do we/should we complain to the credit card company?

If you refuse to pay and then they refuse to sell you the item what do you do? (Provided that they are still the cheapest supplier)

Phantom_Flan_Flinger

They're just passing on the fees they get charged for accepting credit cards onto the consumer.

If you refuse to pay the fee and they refuse to sell the item(s) to you, there's nothing you can do.

Sorry, but that's the way it is.

dzug

It's perfectly legal.

At one time the credit card companies' contract with the merchant forbade them to make any surcharge.

However some time back the OFT (or whatever they were called then) ruled that this was anti-competitive, and that merchants were free to make a surcharge if they wished.

So no point in complaining to anyone other than the retailer, who is free to totally ignore you.

dazza.mk

As above you can't refuse to pay it, it is set out in law that retailers can pass this charge on to you, although normally it is worked into the purchase price.