TAMPA (FOX 13) -
Every swipe of your
credit card is costing someone. It may
be easier for you to carry plastic, but that convenience comes at a big cost to
retailers.
In fact, Visa and
Mastercard just reached a historic settlement.
As customers, we may see a price hike, especially from smaller
businesses where any fee is going to make a difference. At larger stores we may see something new –
in the form of a special discount offered if you pay in cash.
At the Salvation
Army, most people pay with plastic.
"Credit card
sales represent 55 percent of all our total transactions at our stores,"
explained Paul McFarland.
With every charge
the store pays a swipe fee, on average two percent.
So when someone
pays in cash, the profit margin is a little higher than when they charge it.
"All of our
profits stay here in town and support our adult rehabilitation program
here," he said.
There may be a
bigger price to pay.
The credit card
industry settled a class action lawsuit over those swipe fees they charge
stores to process credit cards.
Basically, it means retailers could theoretically charge you more now if
you pay with plastic. It may make a
difference which type of card you use, too.
"There's a fee
for every different credit card like Visa, Master or debit. I would never take American Express because
it's too expensive," said Silvana Bastone of Casare's of New York.
Specialty cards can
cost even more.
"The kind of
cards that are some of the higher ones I learned are the mileage cards, the
ones where you get the mileage rewards, so if stores were going to start
putting surcharges on credit card purchases those would be the type that would
get hit first," explained USA Today consumer reporter Jayne O'Donnell.
Small businesses
like Casare's of New York
that sell pizza for $13 a pie don't have much room for growing fees.
"It's going to
ruin my business. I haven't gone up on
my prices, and I don't want to. I want
to keep my customers," Bastone said.
Even with the
potential increase in swipe fees, they'll definitely keep charging at her store
and at most businesses.
"Unfortunately,
we live in a consumer driven society and so people expect things now," said
Robin Vosler of Adonai PR. "They expect it the way that they want it. What that means for a business that's not
taking credit cards is literally that they take their business somewhere else."
Discounts
for paying in cash could become a new trend in business, from clothing stores
to restaurants.
It
would be a byproduct of this settlement and the success some gas stations have
seen from offering this deal to customers.
