New York Businesses Must Clearly Include Credit Card Fees in all Posted Prices

By Sarah Morgenstern

Do you ever look at receipts and wonder why you paid a bit more than you thought you would?

While New York state law allows businesses to charge customers more for using credit, those businesses must clearly post their credit card fees in dollars and cents and not force customers to “do the math” in their heads, said the Rockland County Consumer Protection, which has been receiving calls that businesses have been adding unposted credit card fees to their advertised prices.

For example, posting “$10.00, plus 3.5% for use of credit” is an illegal way to post a price because the final price with the upcharge is not clearly communicated to customers, the County of Rockland wants consumers to know.

A store owner who charges $10.00 for an item, but also has a policy of charging a 3.5% increase for purchases bought with credit cards, must clearly mark that item as costing, “$10.35” on price lists, menus, estimates, bills, or any other ways businesses communicate prices to customers: before they make their purchases.  

The Rockland County District Attorney and the New York State Attorney General have the authority to enforce the law that businesses must post their full prices in dollars and cents.

The NYS Division of Consumer Protection Consumers can assist consumers who have complaints about unposted credit charge charges, which be filed at http://www.dos.ny.gov/consumerprotection.

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