Dealer charging 3% for using Ford Credit card

[GreaseMonkey]

HA! If only it was 3%. All processors break it down by card and the "awards" or "points" these cards have associated with them varies. A credit card transaction fee can range from 1.5% to a whopping 5.5% depending on the card used.

It's insane but most people just go through their daily lives swiping their credit card at every store they shop at without ever knowing what goes on behind the scene.

It's ok though because its easy to put the blame on the store they are shopping at that charges this outrageous extra fee instead of the corporations and banks behind them.

My wife and I carry ~8 cards, each geared towards a specific set of categories. Cash back-R-us ?. She is grandfathered with an Amex that still pays back 5% on groceries.

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[Maquis]

Don't try an sugar coat it sweetheart. I've been in the game long enough to know how it works.

Precious! ??

 

[ChuckA]

In CT a business cannot charge a credit card processing fee but instead can offer a cash discount. Problem with a cash discount is that it has to be offered to everyone that pays by check. As Controller of a retail tire dealer, I considered the 3% fee as a cost of doing business.

 

[Logal727]

HA! If only it was 3%. All processors break it down by card and the "awards" or "points" these cards have associated with them varies. A credit card transaction fee can range from 1.5% to a whopping 5.5% depending on the card used.

It's insane but most people just go through their daily lives swiping their credit card at every store they shop at without ever knowing what goes on behind the scene.

It's ok though because its easy to put the blame on the store they are shopping at that charges this outrageous extra fee instead of the corporations and banks behind them.

Go cash only then?

 

[bbhaag]

Go cash only then?

Well holy shit...why didn't I think of this!?!?

Oh yeah its not 1957.......thats why.

 

[Just Lurking]

This is any credit card, not just because it's your Ford card. Businesses are tired of absorbing the ridiculous Visa and Mastercard fees so are now pushing them to the customers.

NO! Reason 461 why credit card companies and credit card processors suck. I'm a small business owner just like most dealerships and credit card processing fees SUCK. Either you know why or you don't and most people don't.

Go cash only then?

Let me first stipulate that the fees are probably a little too high, and there are anticompetitive / monopolistic reasons why the fees have stayed stubbornly high. It's possible they could be brought down in a more competitive (or more regulated) environment and everyone would benefit.

However, many business owners who complain about credit card fees seem to forget that cash has very real costs to handle. Cash is more easily stolen, miscounted, embezzled. Sometimes it's counterfeit and if the bank spots the counterfeit bills that money effectively goes *poof* from the business owner's perspective.

Then there's all the overhead required to minimize these risks, cashier training on spotting counterfeit bills and on proper change counting, cashiers counting out their registers under the watchful eyes of management who must then reconcile with their electronic systems, safes to store cash and management's time to open and close the safe, armored cash transport services, trips to the bank to get more small change when running low, and on and on.

 

[BigMach-E]

Well, there are two ways to look at this. My wife was an accountant for a small business. Her take was that the card fees are a cost of doing business that you build into your selling price. If a certain card has excessive fees (Diners Club or AmEx) you just don’t accept those cards.
Do you really expect banks to process those transactions for free?

Kind of. Look, the cost of doing the processing is actually next to nothing. It’s all automated. I understand a 1 percent fee, but anything over that is crazy. The bank/cc processor is basically charging a margin on something that they don’t have to stock, don’t have to ship and don’t have to handle. I understand a business that wants to defray the cost onto the consumer, but this is borderline usury, on something that isn’t a loan.

 

[Space_Pony]

They probably assume that anybody that would take their car to a dealer is not interested in saving money, so what's a measly 3%.

 

[CTZ]

Find a dealer that doesn't charge extra fees for credit cards and tell that dealer why you took your business somewhere else.

Businesses don't like paying the discount fees yet won't give up the business it provides. Visa and MC are businesses and charge fees to make a profit. They pass along some of those profits to cardholders in the form of points, cashback, etc, and also protect the consumer from fraud. If a business doesn't like it, don't take credit cards! It's a cost of doing business the same as anything. Everyone has a choice.

 

[Otto klub]

Let me first stipulate that the fees are probably a little too high, and there are anticompetitive / monopolistic reasons why the fees have stayed stubbornly high. It's possible they could be brought down in a more competitive (or more regulated) environment and everyone would benefit.

However, many business owners who complain about credit card fees seem to forget that cash has very real costs to handle. Cash is more easily stolen, miscounted, embezzled. Sometimes it's counterfeit and if the bank spots the counterfeit bills that money effectively goes *poof* from the business owner's perspective.

Then there's all the overhead required to minimize these risks, cashier training on spotting counterfeit bills and on proper change counting, cashiers counting out their registers under the watchful eyes of management who must then reconcile with their electronic systems, safes to store cash and management's time to open and close the safe, armored cash transport services, trips to the bank to get more small change when running low, and on and on.

Scare tactics from those that want a cashless society. In a cashless society every transaction is traceable. Someone will come up with a way to tax many of them. So the day would come that giving your grandchild twenty bucks for Birthday, you, grandchild, or both would pay a tax on that twenty.
We all pay taxes on things our parents didn't pay taxes on.

 

[kdonnel]

Go cash only then?

Cash has serious downsides and costs for a business.

For businesses, cash acceptance often has costs associated with it that meet or exceed costs to accept debit/credit.

I don't carry cash and don't do business with places that are cash only.

I also don't continue to do business with companies that charge a credit card surcharge.

 

[67 Stang Convertible]

Well holy shit...why didn't I think of this!?!?

Oh yeah its not 1957.......thats why.

^^^ Man, would it be fun to have a Beer with this one! Love the "snarkiness" of their posts!!!

 

[GreaseMonkey]

Go cash only then?

So my daughters sell Girl Scout cookies and you’d be shocked how little we sell in cash. The first word out of their mouth is “Venmo”. No, we don’t take Venmo , but can do Apple Pay, credit or debit. Cash is very problematic. The troop sold so much last year that the bank put a fraud alert on the account. Thought my wife was… you know the story.

 

[Willymy]

So, if your service was to cost a large amount, say $500, the dealer would expect you to have $500 in cash on you to pay or charge an extra 3%. Ridiculous

 

[ShaggySS]

So my daughters sell Girl Scout cookies and you’d be shocked how little we sell in cash. The first word out of their mouth is “Venmo”. No, we don’t take Venmo , but can do Apple Pay, credit or debit. Cash is very problematic. The troop sold so much last year that the bank put a fraud alert on the account. Thought my wife was… you know the story.

Is that why they are $6 a box now. They had to account for the credit card fees?

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