Processing fee

So our county parks n rec dept now take online registration, and accept credit card payments. WOW! I nearly fainted, I could not believe it. Go to this site, they said, and you can register and pay online now.
I go there.
I sign up, go through all the rigamorale and in the end after I put in my cc details, it shows an 8% on top of the charge. What the! It says "Processing fee"
So this must mean by using this third party they are charging this CREDIT CARD fee and it ain't cheap. It made me so mad, I wrote out a check instead!
Is this the way to get around the % fee we pay? Call it a processing fee?

Wow - 8% is robbery! But the new Fed law says we can charge extra now for processing fees but you must list the fee as a separate line item. But 8% is well over the top! (please note that there are a small number of states that do not allow this fee, check first)
Several of our state departments charged for the convenience several years ago, how they got away with this when it was against the law is beyond me.

For years now our county has let people pay property taxes online with a credit card. Great, I thought, till I went to the site and learned they tack on 6% to cover the credit card fees and their "trouble" to deal with it. Needless to say, a 6% increase in my property taxes is a lot of money, so I X'd that out pronto and drove down to the courthouse to pay my taxes!
Maybe a few land owners who live far from here use that, and maybe a few who don't have the cash right now and need to charge it for a while, but no way I am!

There is no way I would tack on the surcharge/processing fee/whatever you want to call it. My guests would, as I would, be totally unhappy. They may swallow it this time with a glare, but I doubt if I would be on the return to list. Taxes are bad enough as an add-on. Processing fee on top of the already high taxes (that would be an extra per cent on the added taxes)? I do not think so.

Arkansawyer said:

For years now our county has let people pay property taxes online with a credit card. Great, I thought, till I went to the site and learned they tack on 6% to cover the credit card fees and their "trouble" to deal with it. Needless to say, a 6% increase in my property taxes is a lot of money, so I X'd that out pronto and drove down to the courthouse to pay my taxes!
Maybe a few land owners who live far from here use that, and maybe a few who don't have the cash right now and need to charge it for a while, but no way I am!.

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Arkansawyer said:

For years now our county has let people pay property taxes online with a credit card. Great, I thought, till I went to the site and learned they tack on 6% to cover the credit card fees and their "trouble" to deal with it. Needless to say, a 6% increase in my property taxes is a lot of money, so I X'd that out pronto and drove down to the courthouse to pay my taxes!
Maybe a few land owners who live far from here use that, and maybe a few who don't have the cash right now and need to charge it for a while, but no way I am!

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Those in arrears pay it that way.

Joey Bloggs said:

Arkansawyer said:

For years now our county has let people pay property taxes online with a credit card. Great, I thought, till I went to the site and learned they tack on 6% to cover the credit card fees and their "trouble" to deal with it. Needless to say, a 6% increase in my property taxes is a lot of money, so I X'd that out pronto and drove down to the courthouse to pay my taxes!
Maybe a few land owners who live far from here use that, and maybe a few who don't have the cash right now and need to charge it for a while, but no way I am!.

Click to expand...

Arkansawyer said:

For years now our county has let people pay property taxes online with a credit card. Great, I thought, till I went to the site and learned they tack on 6% to cover the credit card fees and their "trouble" to deal with it. Needless to say, a 6% increase in my property taxes is a lot of money, so I X'd that out pronto and drove down to the courthouse to pay my taxes!
Maybe a few land owners who live far from here use that, and maybe a few who don't have the cash right now and need to charge it for a while, but no way I am!

Click to expand...

Those in arrears pay it that way.
.

Click to expand...

It's not legal here to add a fee for processing a cc.

Yes. News stories are saying it will be the little guys who charge it, not the big chains.
My cvb charged it a few years ago. Now that I know it wasn't legal for them to do that I'm going ask for a discount on this year's bill.

Madeleine said:

Yes. News stories are saying it will be the little guys who charge it, not the big chains.
My cvb charged it a few years ago. Now that I know it wasn't legal for them to do that I'm going ask for a discount on this year's bill..

Click to expand...

copperhead said:

Wow - 8% is robbery! But the new Fed law says we can charge extra now for processing fees but you must list the fee as a separate line item. But 8% is well over the top! (please note that there are a small number of states that do not allow this fee, check first)
Several of our state departments charged for the convenience several years ago, how they got away with this when it was against the law is beyond me..

Click to expand...

Copperhead, I tried to pay property tax with a debit card one year. They said I could plus 6% for credit fees. I asked I thought that was illegal? They said the states can charge it because they can not afford to lose the credit card fees. I told them I can't afford to lose it either. I asked ." so can I charge that fee"? Nope! Not unless, you are part of the Government. No surprise there!!!!

Bob said:

copperhead said:

Wow - 8% is robbery! But the new Fed law says we can charge extra now for processing fees but you must list the fee as a separate line item. But 8% is well over the top! (please note that there are a small number of states that do not allow this fee, check first)
Several of our state departments charged for the convenience several years ago, how they got away with this when it was against the law is beyond me..

Click to expand...

Copperhead, I tried to pay property tax with a debit card one year. They said I could plus 6% for credit fees. I asked I thought that was illegal? They said the states can charge it because they can not afford to lose the credit card fees. I told them I can't afford to lose it either. I asked ." so can I charge that fee"? Nope! Not unless, you are part of the Government. No surprise there!!!!
.

Click to expand...

Bob said:

Copperhead, I tried to pay property tax with a debit card one year. They said I could plus 6% for credit fees. I asked I thought that was illegal? They said the states can charge it because they can not afford to lose the credit card fees. I told them I can't afford to lose it either. I asked ." so can I charge that fee"? Nope! Not unless, you are part of the Government. No surprise there!!!!

Click to expand...

I went past Wilmington DE and saw the highrise buildings of the credit card companies, and I decided I needed to know why they were all now in Wilmington.
"Delaware attempted to lure large banks away from New York and other large financial companies by dramatically redrafting tax laws for banking industries. Laws also changed to allow banks to charge any interest they wished on credit cards."
ie those with no credit or bad credit were now able to get credit cards.

gillumhouse said:

There is no way I would tack on the surcharge/processing fee/whatever you want to call it. My guests would, as I would, be totally unhappy. They may swallow it this time with a glare, but I doubt if I would be on the return to list. Taxes are bad enough as an add-on. Processing fee on top of the already high taxes (that would be an extra per cent on the added taxes)? I do not think so..

Click to expand...

We can't yet legally offer a fee here, in this country. But Visa/MC recently announced a whole bunch of increases... by about a third! And issuing new cards that will cost merchants an extra fee. But our government is supposed to be acting in the next few months and business are really up in arms about these changes. We are expecting that they will force Visa/MC to allow us to charge a fee for their use and maybe more, considering that they are a virtual monopoly.
At the moment, I offer a cash discount. I might push that even more if the fees go up. I've considered putting it seperately. I might just list it as... Price includes a credit card fee of $X. Pay cash or debit to get this as a discount.

Joey Bloggs said:

Bob said:

copperhead said:

Wow - 8% is robbery! But the new Fed law says we can charge extra now for processing fees but you must list the fee as a separate line item. But 8% is well over the top! (please note that there are a small number of states that do not allow this fee, check first)
Several of our state departments charged for the convenience several years ago, how they got away with this when it was against the law is beyond me..

Click to expand...

Copperhead, I tried to pay property tax with a debit card one year. They said I could plus 6% for credit fees. I asked I thought that was illegal? They said the states can charge it because they can not afford to lose the credit card fees. I told them I can't afford to lose it either. I asked ." so can I charge that fee"? Nope! Not unless, you are part of the Government. No surprise there!!!!
.

Click to expand...

Bob said:

Copperhead, I tried to pay property tax with a debit card one year. They said I could plus 6% for credit fees. I asked I thought that was illegal? They said the states can charge it because they can not afford to lose the credit card fees. I told them I can't afford to lose it either. I asked ." so can I charge that fee"? Nope! Not unless, you are part of the Government. No surprise there!!!!

Click to expand...

I went past Wilmington DE and saw the highrise buildings of the credit card companies, and I decided I needed to know why they were all now in Wilmington.
"Delaware attempted to lure large banks away from New York and other large financial companies by dramatically redrafting tax laws for banking industries. Laws also changed to allow banks to charge any interest they wished on credit cards."
ie those with no credit or bad credit were now able to get credit cards.
.

Click to expand...

Joey Bloggs said:

Bob said:

Copperhead, I tried to pay property tax with a debit card one year. They said I could plus 6% for credit fees. I asked I thought that was illegal? They said the states can charge it because they can not afford to lose the credit card fees. I told them I can't afford to lose it either. I asked ." so can I charge that fee"? Nope! Not unless, you are part of the Government. No surprise there!!!!

Click to expand...

I went past Wilmington DE and saw the highrise buildings of the credit card companies, and I decided I needed to know why they were all now in Wilmington.
"Delaware attempted to lure large banks away from New York and other large financial companies by dramatically redrafting tax laws for banking industries. Laws also changed to allow banks to charge any interest they wished on credit cards."
ie those with no credit or bad credit were now able to get credit cards.

Click to expand...

DE has the least restrictive/most business-friendly incorporation laws anywhere in this country. We've heard that many times from guests who own businesses.

Madeleine said:

Yes. News stories are saying it will be the little guys who charge it, not the big chains.
My cvb charged it a few years ago. Now that I know it wasn't legal for them to do that I'm going ask for a discount on this year's bill..

Click to expand...

No way would I charge this "fee" here if I still had the biz. Our sales tax is already at 7%, plus either 7 or 8% hotel tax now. Someone would pay 20% on top of their room charge? We are not a big resort town or tourist destination. hmmmm.....

Samster said:

Madeleine said:

Yes. News stories are saying it will be the little guys who charge it, not the big chains.
My cvb charged it a few years ago. Now that I know it wasn't legal for them to do that I'm going ask for a discount on this year's bill..

Click to expand...

No way would I charge this "fee" here if I still had the biz. Our sales tax is already at 7%, plus either 7 or 8% hotel tax now. Someone would pay 20% on top of their room charge? We are not a big resort town or tourist destination. hmmmm.....
.

Click to expand...

Samster said:

No way would I charge this "fee" here if I still had the biz. Our sales tax is already at 7%, plus either 7 or 8% hotel tax now. Someone would pay 20% on top of their room charge? We are not a big resort town or tourist destination. hmmmm.....

Click to expand...

I agree. Best just to make sure the prices include all expenses. Let the the hotels do the fee bit! I have been considering a discount for paying cash, this works more in our favor - everyone wants a discount!