Dealers charging a fee for using a credit card

@stereo5 I understand that this sort of thing can come as a shock the first time you encounter it, but for the reasons explained by others, more and more businesses have no choice but to do this, or raise their prices across the board and for many customers that is even more off-putting. I think there is something nice about the price transparency that passing through CC processing fees provides (but, as noted, not gouging customers for debit card card transactions), and to @parkergetdean ’s point, increased tariffs should also be treated that way. 

FWIW, in many non-US jurisdictions, many transactions have been handled this way for a long time; in Scandinavia for example, pretty much all restaurants add a fee (2.5-3%) for credit cards, and no fee for local currency or Euro debit cards. A lovely hotel in NZ just emailed me to remind me that I could wire the accommodation charges to them ahead of time or pay by credit card at checkout with their —very prominently disclosed — 2.5% processing fee (which they would still be losing money on for those using American Express, which charges something in the 4% range).

The OP may want brace himself for what will happen now that VISA & MasterCard have waived the “honor all cards” rule; presumably more merchants will start refusing, or charging customers to use, loyalty cards that come with high interchange fees: Agreement with Merchants to Waive the Honor All Cards rule

Payment with credit cards that offer cash-back and other percentage-based incentives charge those incentives to the vendors, so it hits their bottom lines. Use of the cards has exploded because of these card features, and those are in addition to typical interchange fees that were about 2%. I have watched my own credit card exchange charges to my business triple over the last five years, to levels I find unreasonable because I cannot just raise prices to compensate. So I charge 4% for credit cards and, not surprisingly, people have returned to writing checks.

The major card companies have over a 50% profit margin (56% recently with Visa or Mastercard). Buyers eventually can expect higher prices or convenience/technology fees.

@chenry wrote:

So I charge 4% for credit cards and, not surprisingly, people have returned to writing checks.

... or walked away. 

Credit cards (and BNPL) bring to your business something nothing else can: customers who want what you’re selling but can’t afford it.

I think you’ll agree that that has a price too.

I have noticed this happening more and more. Someone started it and spread like wildfire. As far as I'm concerned that is their cost of doing business like it's always been and the debit card fee to them is less than c.c. Also have run into some places like the Verizon store that don't take cash.

Here in the UK retailers are no longer allowed to make additional charges for their card fees. That’s generally the case in the EU too.

Since the rules changed a few years ago, I’ve paid for pretty much everything by credit card. I hardly ever use a debit card or cash these days. That’s apart from things like utilities and subscriptions by direct debit or direct bank payment.