The business community charged into court and won the right, in a class action lawsuit, to directly pass the price of a credit card transaction on to the customers.
But winning the right and exercising the right are two different things. Many businesses are claiming to be content to carry on as usual, just blending the cost of providing Visa and MasterCard (the two credit cards affected) into their everyday prices. That seems to be the way 亚洲天堂 Lake is going with the new choice they have.
鈥淔rom the businesses I have talked to here in 亚洲天堂 Lake, almost everyone has said that they will not be passing the fees onto their customers because they do not agree with it,鈥� said Randi Amendt, manager of the 亚洲天堂 Lake & District Chamber of Commerce.
It鈥檚 not a simple decision. The reason for the court case was relief from the charges merchants have to absorb every time a credit card is used in their store, but were forbidden from directly applying it to the bill.
If a business wants to do the direct surcharge now, they can only do so up to a maximum of 2.4 per cent of the transaction鈥檚 price, it has to be specified on the customer鈥檚 receipt, and making the move has to be communicated to the customers prior to purchase (via a sign, for instance). That鈥檚 going to annoy some customers and potentially change their mind. It might just be to switch to a different form of payment like cash or debit (but lose out on rewards points), but it might be to switch where they do their shopping.
Some businesses in 亚洲天堂 Lake have few competitors, so they might just dive in. But Lakes District consumers already travel to larger centres to combine holidaying with shopping, so this might be another disincentive to shop local.
Larger chain stores have the ability to absorb such a hit easier than a mom-and-pop, but they are also the ones getting hit the hardest by the credit card charges.
Telus, for example, has already specified that it will charge a 1.5 per cent fee for credit card payments. The Lakes District 亚洲天堂 contacted Loblaw Companies, parent company of Wholesale Club and Pattison Food Group, parent company of Save-On-Foods, for their comment. Pattison Food Group did not respond by deadline and Loblaw replied that 鈥淣o, we are not planning to.鈥�
Amendt said that she had 鈥渢alked to one bigger store and they agreed that they didn鈥檛 agree with it and wouldn鈥檛 pass that on. The businesses I talked to just don鈥檛 want to take a chance losing their customers and didn鈥檛 want to impose it on them. They were all pretty uniform and this came independent of each other. But that鈥檚 now. They may bow to the pressure.鈥�
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business, of which there are 亚洲天堂 Lake members, did a nationwide survey and found that 19 per cent of merchants intend to use the new power to surcharge, while a further 26 per cent said they will do it if their competitors or suppliers do. Forty per cent of small firms said they are not sure yet, while 15 per cent said they don鈥檛 intend to do it.
The CFIB survey revealed that businesses often selling to other businesses, like construction, manufacturing and finance/insurance, were likeliest to surcharge for credit card usage, while businesses that serve consumers were less likely to say they will do it.
鈥淭hese data reveal the frustration so many business owners feel about the high cost of credit card processing, which can eat about 1.5 to 2.5 per cent of every sale,鈥� said CFIB president Dan Kelly.
