Credit Card Surcharge - Illegal or not?
SW in Florida said: “From what I have always understood, it is illegal for companies to charge a surcharge or additional fee for your choice in method of payment. We challenged that on an initial office visit on 03/26/07 where we were not only charged $2 fee but overcharged a copay(the copay overcharged was fixed but not the $2 surcharge which we were told would also be on the next visit). Last and final visit 04/02/07 we are still owed the $2.00 which they will not budge. Recently saw a news report that stated merchants are not suppose to continue this practice which is again illegal in the state of Florida, just to use a credit card to charge you extra. My husband just happen to forget the check book or we would have elected that option to avoid all this hassle so, please help enforce the law, they will not listen to my reason and do not believe they are in any violation!
My husband forgot our checkbook before leaving for an office visit to the following Doctors office. He was informed that if he used a credit card he would have to be charged an additional $2.00 surcharge/transaction fee (which was clearly itemized on his statement invoice). We tried disputing both at the time of the office visit and later with Orchard Bank/HSBC and never got our money back. We hoped that our card company would have stood by this, as I was certain from working in the banking industry that this was a violation.
In addition we both saw a news report that confirmed my suspicions, which it is illegal to charge/impose a fee just to use credit as a method of payment, which is what was clearly done. Furthermore, I today 09-12-2007 made one last call to the office and spoke with Lisa, who stated that it has been their office policy for the last eight years and they have never had a problem and no one else has ever complained. She will make a note but advised that this will not change and they will not be making an adjustment, correction or refund for the $2.00 fee imposed even though I was told back in March that they would take care of it, and they never did!
Also our card company never processed or gave any further review or consideration to the matter even though we immediately contacted them.”
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