January 27, 2013 Ruling “allowing” merchants to charge 4% to credit card holders

Probably not practical as it would take a lot of bookkeeping to figure out each individual assessment and most likely just drive the cardholder away to one of your competitors.

Until recently, merchants have been prohibited from passing along the costs of
interchange fees to customers who use credit cards by charging them higher prices
(although some merchants have skirted the concept by offering discounts to customers
who pay in cash). However, due to a recent court case on November 2012, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York ruled that beginning on January 27 2013 merchants in many states will be allowed to pass along the cost of those interchange fees to their customers through the imposition of a checkout fee. It isn’t true, however, that every customer who uses a VISA or MasterCard credit card will be now paying an extra 4% at the cash register for every purchase. The passing along of interchange fees to customers isn’t automatic; it’s up to each merchant to decide whether or not to charge a checkout fee. Also, merchants will only be allowed to charge a fee that is equivalent to what they must pay for accepting a credit card, which as noted above is typically between 1.5% and 3% of the total transaction amount. The 4% figure is the maximum checkout fee merchants may charge, even if their interchange fees are greater than that. There are some other restrictions on checkout fees: they are permitted only on credit and charge cards, not debit cards; merchants must provide customers with “clear disclosure” notices (at store entrances, at the point of checkout, and on receipts) of any checkout fees, and checkout fees may not be assessed in the ten states (California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma and Texas) that prohibit them.

SCAM ALERT-IF YOU GET THIS READ BELOW Re: Steve has sent you an ecard from AmericanGreetings.com

This is a pretty good hoax. I got this today but when I clicked on the link it took me to a zip file instead of an eCard at Americangreetings. I hate to think what happens if you open the zip file. I have already verifed its a hoax with americangreetings. If you get similar you can send to security@americangreetings.com

Whatever you do don’t open the folder!

On Fri, Jan 25, 2013 at 12:58 PM, Ecard from AmericanGreetings.com wrote:

Dear Bill Hoidas,

Steve has sent you an ecard from AmericanGreetings.com

To view your ecard, just click the link below:
http://www.americangreetings.com/ecards/view.pd?i=2343515831&m=2694&rr=y&source=ag999

For your security, if you’d prefer not to click on links within this email:
1. Type http://www.americangreetings.com/?source=ag999&rr=y into your web browser
2. Locate the ecard pickup link in the upper right-hand corner of the page
3. Enter the following code –> 23435158312694

Please do not reply to this email. To help resolve your issue or question, go to:
http://www.americangreetings.com/help/index.pd?source=ag999

To read about email protection, type
http://www.americangreetings.com/emailprotection into your web browser.

Your Friends at AmericanGreetings.com

tired of unjust prearb decisions by the cardholder’s issuing bank?

In the last year I have noticed issuing banks replying with prearbitartion for cardholder “complaints” that a grade school kid can see is a case of the cardholder reneging on a legitimate purchase. Maybe if the complaints start going into the Fed with a cc to the issuing bank this trend can be reversed.

Report banks for frivolous chargebacks which is a violation of Federal Regulation E and Z

http://www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/

http://www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/about/contact.cfm

More complaint info at

http://www.federalreserveconsumerhelp.gov/about/ConsumerHelponline.pdf

TSYS chargeback guidelines

http://www.tsys.com/Downloads/upload/TSYS-WP-DisputeChargeback.pdf