Restaurants fight back against the FTC crackdown on 'junk fees' as diners balk at new charges
Restaurants fight back against the FTC crackdown on 'junk fees' as diners balk at new charges
The FTC is trying to crack down on "junk fees." Restaurants are fighting to keep fees and surcharges on their checks.
Lawmakers want to crack down on “junk fees,” but restaurants are trying to stay out of the fight.
Surcharges or fees covering everything from credit card processing to gratuities to “inflation” have become more popular on restaurant checks in recent years.
Last year, 15% of restaurant owners added surcharges or fees to checks because of higher costs, according to the National Restaurant Association. In the second quarter, 3.7% of restaurant transactions processed by Square included a service fee, more than double the beginning of 2022, according to a recent report from the company.
Opponents of the practice say those fees and surcharges may surprise customers, hoodwinking them into paying more for their meals at a time when their wallets are already feeling thin. Fed-up diners compiled spreadsheets via Reddit of restaurants in Los Angeles, Chicago and D.C. charging hidden fees. Even the Onion took a swing at the practice, publishing a satirical story in May with the headline “Restaurant Check Includes 3% Surcharge To Provide Owner’s Sugar Baby With Birkin.”
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Am I the only one? The whole thing of charging 4% if someone’s paying by credit card, because that’s what it costs to run their credit card, makes perfect sense to me.
Maybe it is because I used to be involved with a business that paid credit card fees. What we eventually wound up doing was publishing prices that were nice round numbers that roughly included the CC fees, giving a discount below the published prices for cash payments, and including a separate 3% CC fee onto custom quotes that were itemized, if people were paying with a card. That seemed like a pretty solid system. But yeah I definitely get it if a restaurant wants to say that there’s a certain percent fee if you’re paying with a card.
“Cost of living adjustment” can fuck off though
Cash discount is the way to go. Price is the price but offering discounts is fine.
Keep in mind, these "service charges" are usually double to triple what the actual thing costs...
Cash has fees associated with it too when you have a business bank account. It’s probably not a as high but might be now that there is so much cashless.
?
What do you mean? Depositing $100 has always credited me $100. There are monthly fees and etc associated with the account sometimes, but they are irrespective of whether you’re depositing cash.
Usually what we would be trying to motivate people towards is ACH instead of credit card (very low fee but still everything automatic, not a pain in the ass like cash is). But idk of any cash fees associated with any business account I’ve ever been involved with.
Page 11 as an example: https://www.chase.com/content/dam/chase-ux/documents/personal/checking/biz-how-your-transaction-will-work.pdf
It’s pretty low comparatively but not usually free.
Cash deposited at ATMs: No charge.
I do see the 0.25% fee for teller cash deposits but (a) that’s nowhere near as high as CC fee and basically not worth worrying about (b) generally speaking I don’t do that unless I had some massive wad of cash, the ATM is far more convenient unless you have a big pile all at once