reataurants now charging cc fees?

I’m trying to use cash more and more.

 

They've been doing that here for quite some time. Not everyone, but some places.

 

I reduce the tip 3% put it mote where I sign. Don't nickel dime customers. What next a oil use fee to make my French fries? Screw that!

 

The "convenience fee" -- 3 percent added for credit card. Seemed to start around when Covid began. The other new trend is waving an iPad at you to pay the bill with tip options of 20%, 22.5%, and 25%, with the waitress hovering over you as you complete it.

 

And their expectations get smashed when I hit other and then do a 10% tip for service...... They can shove the 20/22,5/25 % up their a__!

 

I've never seen that here.

What does it matter. Another 3% is nothing. You could always save money by going to McDonald's.

You folks own Ferraris and you're quibbling about a few bucks for a dying restaurant? If you want them to stay open, you'll just pay and forget about it.

Restaurant's aren't being greedy by adding this fee, they're trying to stay open. Costs are through the roof, employees are hard to find, good ones impossible, and customers are cranky.

Support your favorite restaurant or tomorrow they may close for good.

 

Businesses are realizing they are losing 3% on every credit card transaction, which can add up considerably.

conversely many prefer credit cards to avoid employee theft and reduce the time to handle
The transaction. Plus it is increasingly harder to find staff that can make change. cash handling is a hassle, and may also create a robbery target.

We offer free ach debit from your bank account, but 24,000 of our clients prefer to pay using a credit card and pay the 3%

Debit cards should be less.

an anomaly that started this year: we have had a 100% increase in people paying cash. I thought maybe it was just a fluke in January but it is continuing.

for myself, I pay cash for just about everything I can.

 

One of the local restaurants started adding a $2 fee for to-go orders, or for deciding to take your leftovers with you. It's a wing place, decent enough, but there's another literally a mile down the road. Guess which one I no longer patron?

 

Really? $2 and you're going to abandon the place?

I'm amazed at how thinned skinned people are when it comes to petty cash. Give them the lousy $2. It costs them at least $2 for the containers.

 

No, it doesn't cost $2. I happen to know, as my wife's shop has to buy packaging. The place is charging $2 on a $20 order for packaging that costs maybe 25 cents in bulk. And yes, when folks try to rip me off I will change my patronage to a place that doesn't.

 

Crazy times we live in. I was at checkout, and cashier was trying to make change, and at one point gave the woman more money than she gave him. I told him 4 times what her change was, and then he tried using a calculator. He couldn't even manage that. He looked at me and saw this look I was giving him

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Not so much. Worse food, worse service. Calculating tip after tax, service fees, high tip% options, and now credit card fees. All that gets taken out of the tip amount if I get presented with it. Go out of business? Who cares these days. Restaurants all over are closing at record pace and they wonder why. Adapt or die. Charging more for less is a bad way to adapt.

 

These places should understand that when a customer stops coming, they usually never return. Popular sub shop down the road nearly doubled prices and reduced portion size. Customers left and stayed gone. Popular, money making business closed because owner got greedy.

 

It is even worse at places that you have to pay before you actually get service! What is a tip? It is an acknowledgment of good service and appreciation. Tip is not an entitlement. When a restaurant assumes my tip they get less. That's the only way to teach consequences for actions.

 

This is why I really don't get "tipflation" to projecting 22.5%/25% as "expected" on the screen -- the tip amount has already automatically gone up with the increases in price.

 

I also see tips screens on everything. I see it especially in my son's activities. Enter an arcade and buy a $30 game card from the front desk -- there is the tip thing you have to decline. A virtual golf place where you are paying $50 or $100 for session, there is a tip screen. Even a go kart center -- pay $200 for racing, there's a tip screen. I really like the go kart center -- everybody is great and works hard, so I usually tip them something, but it's kind of ridiculous.

 

I've lost all embarrassment about hitting "custom" and zero when somebody who has done the bare minimum spins an iPad around with "it's gonna axe a question."

 

I've noticed that at some places (like the golf place), there are times when, depending who is at the desk, the person checking out won't even show the tip screen -- not sure if that's because so many people decline, or if even they think it's silly/embarrassing to ask. It's very refreshing onb the rare occasion that happens.

 

When my bank was taken over by US Bank, the bank people made a change where the customer would be charged a transaction fee on top. Over the past 10 months, hundreds of transactions have been processed, and I have had only one complaint. When a debit card is used, I pay a minimal fee, and there is no surcharge/ convenience fee charged to the customer. With the customer being charged that way, I save over $4,000.00 a month in credit card processing charges.
Gary Bobileff

 

The more palatable way for restaurants to handle the fees in my opinion is to offer "cash discounts". Fortunately, I see cash discounts far more often than convenience fees in restaurants these days. My guess is that they are benefiting from more than just saving processing fees with cash.

 

US Bank does my credit card processing.
Gary Bobileff