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Comment by ulfw | Hacker News Reader

Australia is the only country I've ever been at that heavily discourages using a credit card because almost every single shop charges you 1-2% MORE for using a credit card, including international hotel chains, restaurants etc. THAT is something that should be outlawed.

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It's nice to see the cost of credit card processing being limited to credit card users, instead of everybody having to pay it through increased baseline prices with some "premium" credit card holders getting it back through "rebates".

That should not be outlawed. The merchant is getting 1-2% less, and so they should be able to charge 1-2% more. Using a credit card at my shop is not a fundamental human right. It's much more arguable that I have the right to choose my pricing though. If you want to pay in gold I'd charge a fee for that also.

Why? If the merchant is paying an extra 1-2% for your purchase in cc transaction fees, why should they be expected to eat the cost? Why should your service be subsidized by people whose transactions don't have that overhead?

They are paying even more to manage cash but don’t have a separate fee for it. Why should credit card users subsidize that?

(Personally I think it’s fine to charge any which way you want as long as your terms are clear. But I think this answer makes clear it’s not so obvious as you suggest?)

Bank of Canada studied it and found that credit costs were over double the cash costs. Debit is the lowest-cost option for merchants.

https://www.bankofcanada.ca/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/boc-r...

With cash, merchants can show less income and then pay less tax.

Pricing transparency is a good thing. It makes sure incentives for everyone are correctly aligned.

Even as a fan of the rewards points system I'm fine with this. My only beef is that I wish the credit card price was the list price and cash had a 2% discount. A fee that affects nearly everyone isn't a fee (see resort fees), a cash discount reduces surprise and cognitive load.

In the past (decades ago), before the EU capped processing fees, I had pretty good success just asking for a discount when paying cash, even in supermarkets.

And yes, "it can only become cheaper" has a much lower cognitive load than US style payments where the advertised price is just a lower bound.

I agree. I wish the credit card networks didn't give into this, even if I might agree with other parts of the recent reforms. Cash discounts were always allowed.

I think the real problem is that merchants don't want to discount cash, because it still costs money. So now they can have their cake and eat (some of) it, too.

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