Path: utzoo!attcan!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!mcdchg!ddsw1!karl From: karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM (Karl Denninger) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga Subject: Re: The Mail Order Amiga Message-ID: <[205.7]comp.amiga;1@ddsw1.MCS.COM> Date: 15 Jun 89 23:00:06 GMT References: <767@corpane.UUCP> <898@inesc.UUCP> Lines: 47 >Response 3 of 6 (205) by ins_adjb at jhunix.HCF.JHU.EDU on Sun 11 Jun 89 06:04 >[Daniel Jay Barrett] >In article ej0s+@andrew.cmu.edu (Eric >Jenkins) writes: >:The reason companies have an additional charge for use of a credit card >:is because credit card companies charge the companies for use of >:a credit card; usually between 3%-5% of the purchase price. That means >:that if you could purchase an Amiga 2500 from Go Amigo for $3399 with > I was under the impression that it is illegal for a company to >charge you extra like this for using a credit card. This is why two-price No, it's not illegal as far as I know, but it IS usually against the processing company's policies to do this.... That is, the company that clears the charges (and in actuality posts the money to the company's bank account) sets the rules -- and one of these is usually "no credit card surcharges". The "cash discount" is the way around this, of course. Where you get into the grey area is when a company accepts COD payments that are not certified. In this case it's debatable whether you're paying cash....and if the lower price applies to these payments, they are almost certainly breaking the rules. There are SOME credit-card processing companies that say "no price differential between credit cards and cash allowed". If a company uses one of these for processing their charge slips, and offers a cash discount, they will get NAILED by the bank and credit card processing company should they get caught. It's a contractual breech, yes, but what business would want their bank to get pissed off at them?! Note that MOST processing companies do prohibit a surcharge -- but only a few prohibit cash discounts. Thus, if you run into one that has a surcharge, and can divine which processing outfit they use, you can stick it to them and good. The problem, of course, is in finding out where they bank.... and which of the many firms handles that bank's merchant accounts. IF you can figure this out then sending the ad to the company that does the processing and/or their bank should get the heat turned up nice and high. (We accept VISA and Master Card, so we are "in" on all this good stuff). -- Karl Denninger (karl@ddsw1.MCS.COM, !ddsw1!karl) Public Access Data Line: [+1 312 566-8911], Voice: [+1 312 566-8910] Macro Computer Solutions, Inc. "Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"