Paying to pay your bills. Gonna get worse?

[SL6827]

Just paid on my account at my physician's office today and was charged an extra couple dollars to pay with my debit card. It seems like more and more places are starting to charge you to pay a bill, whether it is with a debit card or credit card. Ughhh. My utility bill does as well, but I also have the option of paying with my checking account that incurs no cost, so that is what I do.

Do you think in the future that most retailers will follow suit, even with a debit card? And I wonder if they might also start to refuse high rewards credit cards as well?

 

[Magical2017]

I do think more and more places do it, or they offer a "cash discount."

I get that they are paying high fees and will charge to use a credit card, but as a consumer, I also feel like that is the cost of doing business. I definitely get why small, local businesses trying to stay afloat do this, but they have to know some people will just buy from Amazon. No cc fee, shipping is included with Prime membership, you always know if something is in stock, and it is very convenient.

We currently put almost all spending on credit cards and pay them off each month. In some cases, we pay cash if they charge a fee. It just depends on the service. We have saved thousands on vacations using points and miles, so for the most part, we will continue to use our credit cards.

 

[barkley]

And I wonder if they might also start to refuse high rewards credit cards as well?

a tentative settlement was reached between merchants and visa/mastercard last November (courts still have to approve it). it's been an ongoing class action for over 20 years. the tentative agreement allows-

Under the settlement, credit cards would be classified into three categories:

commercial cards
premium cards, including rewards cards
standard, no-rewards cards
Merchants could then choose which categories to accept, but must still accept all cards within a category. Merchants can also add a surcharge of up to 3% to customers’ bills for paying by credit card.

merchants currently are stuck with 'accept one brand card/accept all that that issuer offers' contracts so they can't limit transactions to no rewards cards (which they pay a lower fee to the card issuer for) which is why people who don't use rewards cards get hit with the same fee as those who use rewards cards. when/if this settlement gets approved by the courts it may be that some merchants refuse to take reward cards while others will charge a higher fee for a customer using one vs a lower/no fee for customers who do not.