re: Restaurants charging a credit card fee. Is this new?

It's perfectly legal for me to pass it back to them in the tip.

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Used to they'd get a warning from their processing company mandated by the card brand (VS, MC, DS or AX). If they continued the practice, they would get blacklisted from accepting credit cards ever again. Anymore I believe the card brands have gotten looser with surcharging to the client. There is a cap to what is allowed now if I understand correctly. Some businesses sorta got around the rule with a "cash discount" which is essentially the same thing but legal in the processing agreement. AmEx has gained acceptance in a lot of places because they've started falling more in line with Visa and MC's pricing but they're still more expensive. Just not exponentially more expensive. I used to be a pricing analyst at a credit card company. Interchange expense at a restaurant for a rewards card is all in around 2.04% plus $.20. It gets surcharged past that by some amount to the actual business. So maybe 2.5% or so is a common rate to pay for a rewards card. It is a real expense to the business but like said previously, it should be built into the meal prices. Not line item'd out. I'm friends with a GM at a local chain restaurant and he said his run-rate is around 1.75% give or take .25% each month. I imagine that is common.

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I appreciate the long response, I just don’t get what any of that has to do with the legality of a gas station offering a discount when paying with cash

I always put the credit card fee into my pricing and just reduced it out if a customer payed check or cash. People don't care if they pay as long as they don't know they are paying it basically. I had the "fee" at one point and heard a lot of fuss about it, so I just put it in pricing and never heard a peep.

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How difficult is that? how difficult is it to pay cash? hell, "theres an ATM over there".

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That charges a fee, but everyone seems okay with their own bank charging a fee to get their own money.

They could learn to code

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Credit card companies Visa, Mastercard, and Discover, will raise their processing fees in April, according to the Wall Street Journal. ... That is the percentage of a sale the bank that issued the credit card charges the merchant bank to handle the transaction.

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Credit card companies raised their fees in April. The merchant is simply passing along the increased fee. They can do that or they can take a smaller profit or they can raise prices.

That would make too much sense

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It's literally the exact same thing.

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I know it is. That's the point. The way the business frames it to the customer is the difference, and packaging it as a discount for cash paying customers is a softer message than charging for credit card paying customers. You get more bees with honey.

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This guy gets it. It’s simply a reward for cash instead of punishment for a card.

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I get what he's saying and it makes sense but your second sentence isn't correct. Both consumers are in the same exact position. They're paying the same margin either way.

My mortgage company charges me a $5 "convenience fee" for making an online payment thru ACH, directly from my checking account. My only recourse to avoid the fee, is to mail in a check.