Credit card surcharge on travel tickets

Reading China Post today - story about travel agents not supposed to charge a fee for paying by credit card… not sure when this came into being but wondered if anyone else had been charged extra when they paid by plastic ?

I always get dinged - to the tune of 3%, I think. But then I get all kinds of accident insurance when I use my credit card, so it’s worth it, even though it bugs me…

I think it’s 2.8% This is a charge that the retailers are supposed to take themselves, but in Taiwan it’s almost always passed on to the customers. You won’t find it in supermarkets, big chainsotres etc, but definitely buying things like cellphones or travel tickets. Often the margins on these things are so small (after you’ve bargained the price down) that if you pay by credit card your discount suddenly disappears again, otherwise they won’t make a profit.

This is against their agreement with the credit card companies and several years ago the papers ran a story about the card companies saying if you could prove a price difference then you would get refunded and the store would get charged. Of course that’s impossible - you’ll never get them to right ‘credit card surcharge’ on the receipt. Well almost never. I got them to do it once, but when my wife called the bank, they said that no, acttually, they couldn’t do anything about it.

So, pay in cash or suck up the charge.

Brian

Same goes for restaurants; you didn’t think that 10% service charge was actually going to the wait staff?

CK