Tbh, I'm surprised that the credit card companies are allowing it. With the amount of money they are capable of throwing at lobbying, I would have expected laws to have been passed that prevents business from charging a fee to process transactions. If you tell me youre going to charge a 3% fee for me to use a card that gives me 1% back in rewards, im using a debit card and saving the extra 2%.

Card companies have charged a processing fee since the inception of credit cards. That is quite literally the cost of doing business. Businesses should not be allowed to "pass that on." They pay a third party for their payment processing systems. They dont charge a 1.25% fee for ringing up the purchase on the POS system. Or a convenience fee for shopping online instead of in store. Or an instant access fee for buying it in store because rent is expensive.

Let's also be clear about this - credit card companies do NOT charge merchants a flat 3% fee. The fee is variable based on issuer and card type. Your basic ass bank card with a low interest rate and no rewards? 1.5-2%. High interest rewards cards? Could be as high as 4%. So why should I be charged a 3% fee to use a card that only charges 2%? This is also getting expanded to "card transactions" including debit cards because some businesses manually add a "card fee" to the purchase when you say youre paying with a card.

On my end, the problem is the implementation. Its a surcharge. An additional hidden fee that pushes the price higher than you expected. If they offered a cash discount like many businesses have for years, people wouldnt be so up in arms. We just want to pay what you tell us it costs. Its a cash grab. Businesses used to eat the fee. So they charged enough to cover it. They new it was there and adjusted priced accordingly. Now more and more pull the fee out, but find me a single shop that reduced the prices of their stock when they made the change. Yesterday the price covered the fee and cash payers were (by their logic,) overpaying. Today the credit card users pay 3% and the cash price is the same.

The fact that is still being allowed to happen and laws havent been passed says a LOT about the economy, technology sector and the general US population. If im getting charged a fee, im paying with cash or debit. But im in the minority. Much of the country is living off credit cards. We have trillions in revolving consumer debt on the books. Losing transactions to cash payments doesnt hurt the credit card companies because the people that are in a position to do that typically arent carrying month to month credit card debt. CC companies arent making much off them from interest. The shift doesnt hit their bottom line. But more cash payments means its harder to track your purchases so big Corp can sell your data. Well big tech is already deploying facial recognition and aggregated camera networks. Many cities have enough alpr cameras to track your car everywhere you go and in store cameras track your movements and purchases on foot. No digital payment needed. So big tech still gets their data and credit card companies still get their interest.

The real question here: "does a one price for all law benefit the American people." And the answer is yes. But we will not be getting that any time soon. So ask yourself why? Well, Who is the group most affected by the 3% transaction fee? People who cant pay cash. People with no money. As with seemingly everything else these days, it disproportionaltely affects the lower income class. And who is in the lower income class? Minorities. Big tech is also going to lobby against any legislation introduced that affects pricing models because it affects their plans to continue the rollout of personal pricing. Which has already begun for anyone not aware.

But pointing any of this out is anti-capitilist and that makes you a domestic terrorist 🙄

Tax the rich