Re: payments from email

[Luke <..hidden..>]

On Tue, 1 Sep 2009, James Stevens wrote:

> As a side note, I notice more of my suppliers/utilities are starting to
> charge 2% if we pay our account balance with a credit card (As they are
> forwarding the CC processing fee on to me).
> 
> My thought is that merchant account fees are a part of doing business
> however, I'm thinking of doing the same and charge my customers
> processing fee when paid by Credit Card.
> 
> Is this becoming the norm? Does everyone but me pass on the CC
> processing fee (2-3%)?

I do processing through a business services company, which has been 
informed by their merchant account provider, that it is illegal to do 
that.  I have not looked into it personally, but have always found this a 
bit inexplicable.

I have noticed, however, that many local businesses here (Pennsylvania, 
U.S.A.) are offering discounts for cash payments, I presume as a way of 
circumventing this.

I have not researched it, as we only do maybe 3-4 transactions a year (in 
a high volume year) for which people object to paying with checks.  I 
don't mind the extra hassle of check processing, if it means we can get 
the full amount.

Luke