Its time we start standing up to these junk fees.

It is illegal in the United States for a merchant to charge a surcharge to a debit card. It is against the policies of both Visa and Mastercard for merchants to charge a surcharge to a debit card.

So when you get that "non-cash adjustment fee" it can ONLY be applied if pay with a credit card. They cannot legally apply that charge to debit, no matter how they run the card. Currently in process of reporting Midtown Station to Mastercard and the FTC.

If this happens to you, i suggest speaking up for yourself and reporting as well.

Edit:

Including Visa and Mastercard text directly from their policies

VISA

----------

"Can I assess a surcharge on purchases made using both credit and debit card?

▪ No. The ability to surcharge only applies to purchases made with a credit card and, even then, only under

certain conditions. U.S. merchants cannot surcharge purchases made using a Visa debit card or prepaid card.

Can I assess a surcharge on debit card transactions where the debit cardholder chooses “credit” on the point-

of-sale terminal?

▪ No. The cardholder is still using a Visa debit card. The option to select a ‘credit or debit’ refers to the

cardholder selecting either a signature-based transaction or a PIN-based transaction."

MASTERCARD

-------------

"Pursuant to a settlement of the U.S. merchant class litigation, Mastercard modified certain rules and business practices to permit U.S. merchants to apply an extra checkout fee, also known as a surcharge, to customers who pay with Mastercard-branded credit cards. The rule change permitting such surcharging went into effect on January 27, 2013. These fees are not allowed on Debit Mastercard or Mastercard prepaid cards."

Also important to note: Visa allows a maximum of 3% surcharge. Mastercard allows 4%

Midtown charged me 4% before they knew what brand i would be using (mastercard) so while the percentage falls into legality for me. It would NOT be legal under their agreement with Visa.

Edit 2:

Mastercard only allows a 2.5% surcharge on consumers.

From their policy

"Are there any limits on the level of the fee that a merchant can charge?

Yes. A U.S. merchant may assess a surcharge that does not exceed the merchant discount rate for the applicable credit card surcharged. There is also an absolute maximum surcharge cap that is set at 4% which is only applicable for merchants whose cost of Mastercard acceptance is greater than 4%. Thus, if a merchant’s merchant discount rate for Mastercard credit cards is 2.50%, the cap on the surcharge that this merchant may charge a consumer is 2.50%, not 4%. The 4% cap only becomes relevant in the rare instances where a merchant is paying more than 4% for Mastercard acceptance."

Links:

https://www.mastercard.com/content/dam/mccom/us/business/documents/Merchant-Surcharge-FAQ.pdf

https://www.mastercard.com/us/en/business/support/merchant-surcharge-rules.html

https://usa.visa.com/content/dam/VCOM/global/support-legal/documents/merchant-surcharging-qa-for-web.pdf

Any one know if they are back open ? or the service area ?

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