Is it legal to charge customers a credit card service fee in Texas?

You need to get on Yelp ASAP.

 

It's all fun and games until you try to pay your property taxes. I've always wanted to put my property taxes on my card to get some points back, but they charge something like a 2.5% or so "convenience fee" for the privilege. Can't stand that...

 

I decided to Google. Apparently the law changed or its interpretation is different as of 2018 (?) I'd rather watch 2 nerds debate string theory than read legal documents, but :

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/wat...d-payments-was-overturned-now-youll-pay-more/
https://www.news-journal.com/featur...cle_7acf3d58-3261-11ea-a5c8-cb0b066ac47d.html
https://faq.sll.texas.gov/questions/9631

 

Some companies get around it by offering a “cash discount” like Spec’s

 

@body slam I don’t think it is without a disclosure. If they just dropped a fee on you, contest it with your cc company. Edit- looks like @Dr of Dunk found the legalese that changed in 2018.

Or the low rent gas stations that have the gas price on the sign but underneath in small font it says cash price.

At any rate, it’s tacky to pass the cost on to the consumer this way. Just increase prices to cover the fee. Good bookkeeping would tell them approximately how much to raise prices.

 

I'm gonna need @bobrek's son to explain this via youtube

 

It's tackier for a financial services company to tack on 3.5% (or whatever it is, and call it a "convenience fee") to every non-cash transaction for literally doing nothing outside of setting up the initial infrastructure, which the government subsidized.

 

You shouldn't be allowed to pay any utility or tax bill via credit card. Too many people would challenge the charges down the line and it would wreak havoc on the local governments trying to address all these supposed errors.

 

How often has this happened?

 

I don't agree. They are just being transparent

 

???

Have you not heard the saying Government is nothing more than a monopoly on violence?

Try to do a challenge and see what happens.

 

Also, folks have been able to use their charge cards on utility bills and taxes for years. I have yet to see any stories where customers are challenging those costs en masse.

 

Totally agree with @Mr. Brightside.

 

tru hero

 

Far too often people have zero to no respect for our local government.

 

support local business, support local government

(bumper sticker on my car)

 

You're not going to believe this but my custom license plate is... SLB SLG

 

It may or may not be legal, but it probably most certainly against the Terms of Service that the business in question has with the Credit Card company.