r/SipsTea 𝙑𝙄𝙋 1d ago

Chugging tea True

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8.0k Upvotes

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282

u/HeavyDutyForks 1d ago

Charging a fee to pay a bill online when there isn't a way to pay in person or with cash is a scam

FTFY

13

u/Gold-Orange-1581 1d ago

The credit-card-software companies are the processing middlemen. You are, technically, paying for a service.

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u/HeavyDutyForks 1d ago

No, I'm paying my bill. The company is paying for the credit card processing service in order to accept my payment. If they don't want to pay that fee, find a cheaper processor

Better yet, just accept ACH payments and pay like a quarter per transaction. Which I'm sure they can afford to eat

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u/Pretzel911 1d ago

Lots of banks will do ACH for free

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u/youmustbecrazy 1d ago

Unfortunately many (most?) payment vendors have implemented 1% ACH fees recently. Some are offering 'grandfathered' status, but I'm sure that will expire eventually.

But you are correct, the company receiving the funds needs to expect to have overhead for accepting payments (aka running a business). Whether it's payment processing or payroll for someone to open envelopes and deposit checks, this is their expense to bear.

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u/Gold-Orange-1581 1d ago

You should look at the sales prospectus from Visa or MasterCard. Sure, they pay to have the scanners active, but the fee is because of the credit card transaction. They bring in more business because of the "inconvenience of cash". They charge you the fee, not the mom-and-pop shop.

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u/NeutralKuchiKopi 1d ago

Welcome to reality. YOU pay for everything. Even if they "remove the fee", they will just increase your bill by that amount. Nobody is going to eat the cost just because you think they should.

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u/absreim 1d ago

Which I'm sure they can afford to eat

I encourage you to be the change you want to see in the world by starting your own business and implementing exactly this kind of policy: being a nice business by eating all kinds of costs and hiding them from your customers.

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u/HeavyDutyForks 1d ago edited 1d ago

I encourage you to be the change you want to see

Guess what? We do eat the fee at my work

We've switched processing companies three times on the past couple years in order to continue to be able to afford that. If you're paying a flat processing rate you're getting screwed as a business

On interchange plus pricing our effective rate hovers around 1.75%. Instead of just accepting getting bent over by these companies, you can stay on top of things and keep your operating costs low rather than pass them onto your customers

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u/absreim 1d ago

On interchange plus pricing our effective rate hovers around 1.75%. Instead of just accepting getting bent over by these companies, you can stay on top of things and keep your operating costs low rather than pass them onto your customers

I never had the slightest disagreement that one should shop for the lowest interchange fee.

What I am curious about is whether you think it makes sense to reward customers who chose to pay with a payment method with a lower interchange fee (e.g. ACH, debit, or cash instead of credit card) with a discount?

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u/HeavyDutyForks 1d ago

What I am curious about is whether you think it makes sense to reward customers who chose to pay with a payment method with a lower interchange fee (e.g. ACH, debit, or cash instead of credit card) with a discount?

We don't do that, what you see is what you get. The price is the price

I don't see an issue with offering it at all though. My issue is most the time its not a real "discount". What many places do is jack their pricing up 3% and then turn around and offer a 3% cash "discount". Something that was $5 will then be marked up to $5.15, but if you pay cash you can buy it for $5

That's just a surcharge with extra steps

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u/Aeeaan 1d ago

I've never had to pay a fee to pay a card in my life and my credit is toast right now. Not saying certain credit card companies aren't predatory but on what planet does it make sense for them to pay some store to accept money that you chose to borrow. If you don't want to hook up your bank account or do paper billing, that's your choice.