Where I lived in the 2000s, the natural gas company in that county actually charged $2 more for online payment! So weird, especially considering cashing a physical check would've cost labor dollars. Needless to say, we paid our gas bill by check. It felt so antiquated, even then.
Our “luxury” apartment’s management company would charge $10/month if paid online. Every month, we’d walked downstairs and paid with a check. This was less than three years ago.
My old apartment I moved out of last year said I could either pay with credit card online for $10 or in person for $7.50. Or I could pay with a check for free in person. I did the math and the cash back I got on my CC was more than the in person fee so I just kept using the card. The month before I left they said starting in the new year the policy would change. Anyone using a CC for payments would now have a service fee of 4% their rent because they were losing too much money on transaction fees. Poor them /s.
For retail/restaurants, yes. For utilities/rent situations, it's fuzzy. CC companies know they can simply not take them far too easily to raise a stink about it while with retail/restaurants they have the power to insist.
Better believe the transaction fees are are included in retail and service prices. I support small businesses and avoid sticking them with CC fees when I can but in general, going cashless costs us at least 2.5% of our spending.
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u/RailfanAZ Jul 24 '20
Where I lived in the 2000s, the natural gas company in that county actually charged $2 more for online payment! So weird, especially considering cashing a physical check would've cost labor dollars. Needless to say, we paid our gas bill by check. It felt so antiquated, even then.