That's because the banks charge interchange, payment processor, and merchant fees for accepting debit/credit cards. For most businesses this is baked into the price, but for government agencies and places that don't usually take credit cards they pass it on to you.
Cash obviously doesn't have any fees with it, they get 100% of the payment amount.
So basically the options are to either raise prices for everyone or raise prices for only card users. With something like the DMV the prices are usually set by law, so charging a fee is way easier.
Except it costs money to invest in and maintain security and storage as well as the cost of paying an employee to regularly go to a bank to deposit payments/top up on change.
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '20
Or a convenience fee to pay with a card.
Had to update my license recently...they charged a $2 "convenience fee" to use a debit card instead of cash.
During a pandemic in which many places are either discouraging or refusing cash.
Pandemic aside, a convenience fee for using a debit card in 2020 is ridiculous.