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Merchant Charges
The fact is, it is possible that merchants charge credit card users more than cash customers for the same purchase. Until 1984, the Federal Truth-in-Lending Act outlawed surcharges on credit card purchases. Since then however, no federal law has come up to take its place, even though other provisions of the law are still valid. Bankcard Holders of America allow certain states to prohibit surcharges.
While Discover permits surcharges for the states not mentioned, Visa and MasterCard rule against them. In the case of American Express, the practice is discouraged but for merchants entertaining MasterCard or Visa, it is prohibited due to their policy of disallowing discrimination.
The loophole that occurs in this context is that cash discounts can be offered by merchants. The implication is that you are not made to pay more than the price tag for using a credit card but they may charge less for cash payments. In the fine print of certain companies all prices reflect cash discount for card users to pay a certain amount more than the specified price. Despite being legal, this contradicts the essence of the law or regulations. This may exclude the service fee for services like tele-booking of tickets, but in person, higher charge than cash is not allowed. Credit card info.com reports:
Can the merchant charge credit card users more than cash customers for the same item? In a word, maybe. In a few more words-- probably, if the merchant goes about it the right way. The Federal Truth-in-Lending Act prohibited surcharges on credit card purchases until 1984; since then, there has been no Federal law on that subject. (Other provisions of the law are still in force.) The states of CA, CO, CT, FL, KS, MA, ME, NY, OK, and TX have laws against surcharges, according to Bankcard Holders of America.
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