Customer loyalty is priceless. For everything else, there’s MasterCard, and Visa, and American Express, so is passing on credit card swipe fees to customers a good (and legal) idea? Kara Maciel of Epstein Becker Green breaks down the issue in a recent post.
“With respect to consumers, in the majority of states, passing credit card swipe fees along in a customer surcharge became lawful in 2013,” she says. The 10 states that currently prohibit the practice are: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah. For the states that do allow the surcharge, the fee can’t exceed the rate charged by the credit card company to the business, and it must be posted clearly on the check or bill. It also can’t be used for debit card purchases, says Maciel.
