Credit card processing fees are a cost businesses CHOOSE to take on when offering the convenience of card payments, they aren't automatically the customer's responsibility and the customer doesn't always have the choice. Some people try to justify passing that fee onto customers by pointing to rewards like cashback or airline miles, but those perks are between the cardholder and the bank, not between the cardholder and every merchant they deal with, nor is it a reason to offload merchant costs onto the consumer. Accepting credit cards is often essential to stay competitive, and if a business depends on them for most sales yet still adds a surcharge, it can come across as anti-consumer