According to a recent report from the Boston Globe, some merchants in that city are offering discounts to people who pay in cash. This is because business owners are assessed processing fees when handling credit and debit card payments of up to $2 for every $100 in transactions, notes the newspaper.
The Globe cited the owner of a Japanese eatery in the city who offers cash-paying customers a “Maki Madness” discount of up to 55 percent off certain menu items, while those with credit and debit cards are still required to pay full price. The owner of the eatery likened credit card companies to “loan sharks” for assessing such fees.
By now, many Americans may be familiar with the controversy over interchange fees, largely due to a high-profile petition drive carried out earlier this year by the 7-Eleven convenience store chain. The credit card industry defends the fees as part of the cost of doing business, and maintains that merchants are paying to offer their consumers the convenience of being able to use their cards.
In September, 7-Eleven announced that it had collected 1.6 million signatures urging Congress to rein in what it described as unfairly high interchange fees, which consumers tend to pay for in the form of higher prices – regardless of whether they use their credit card for a specific transaction.
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