A rising trend in Alaska and elsewhere: Merchants and vendors are illegally charging consumers a 3% surcharge on products and services.
A rising trend in Alaska and elsewhere: Merchants/ vendors are illegally charging consumers a 3% surcharge on products and services. As it turns out, it is illegal to surcharge a debit transaction; this includes entering your PIN or swiping “as if credit.”
Entrepreneurs and businesses are seemingly confused or abusive of this latter swipe. Swiping a debit card as if credit is also referred to as signature debit or offline debit. What occurs during this transaction is that the debit card is runs through a different network that’s generally quicker and easier to apply gratuity. These point-of-sale systems have no protections preventing surcharge, which is allowed on actual credit cards, excluding some states.
The fact is, swiping a debit card as credit is still a debit transaction and surcharge is strictly prohibited by federal laws and Visa/Mastercard — the Electronic Transfer Funds Act and Durbin Act, to begin with. What a merchant is supposed to do for gratuity on a debit card, is adjust the sale price before swiping. One must simply dispute the charge with your financial institution to receive your 3% back.
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Letter: Alaska’s bear massacreObviously, the last thing the state of Alaska wants is for we-the-people to see actual photos of the atrocity committed by “our” state government, ostensibly on our behalf.
Read more »
Mastercard denies report it plans to raise credit card fees on merchants, calls news coverage ‘misleading’Meanwhile, Visa also said in a blog post that recent press coverage on the issue was “misleading.”
Read more »
Alaska Board of Education Votes to Protect Girls’ High School SportsAlaska's board of education has voted to approve a proposal barring trans-identifying males from playing on girls' high school sports teams.
Read more »
Southeast commercial red and blue king crab fishery remains closed for upcoming seasonThe Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced the closure of the Southeast Alaska commercial red and blue king crab fishery for the 2023-2024 season.
Read more »
Sterling Highway closed in both directions near mile 70 due to collisionAlaska State Troopers have closed the Sterling Highway in both directions near mile 70.
Read more »
Iditarod musher Jessie Holmes badly injured while helping with storm cleanup in Western AlaskaJessie Holmes was medevaced from Golovin to Nome and then flown again to Anchorage for additional care.
Read more »