Credit Card Surcharges.

This week is meant to be the end of the dreaded overpriced credit card surcharge. For a few years now, merchants have been able to pass on credit card surcharges. For the most part, retailers have made their own call with most major retailers absorbing the charges as they always have and some choosing to pass on the charge.

There are three major players that have went above and beyond- Taxis, Airlines and Ticket agencies. They tend to charge well above the 0.5% - 2% charge that banks charge retailers and either slap on a fixed fee or a fee well in excess of what is being charged to them by the banks.

I have had run-ins with 2 of these this week. I've looked at flight specials this week thinking of planning holidays. On some sites, a credit card fee has been replaced with an equal "service charge". I also booked some tickets at Ticketek, on  $70 worth of tickets, they wanted to charge me a $5 "admin" fee for printing out my own darn tickets, then slap on a credit card surcharge on top of that.

I have no quarms with retailers passing on a credit card fee, particularly if a fee free option is also offered, but charging rates over 10% for using a card is just gouging in my eyes. Retailers who use processing costs to justify the over the top fees do not hold water in my book either - retailers need to expect that any form of payment requires a processing expense and this needs to be taken into consideration in any business model.

I really hope that pressure is applied to these companies and that the industry is revolutionised once and for all.