I just don’t understand the ‘Resort Fee’ at hotels. What the hey? What am I paying for? Isn’t the pool included in the hotel?
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You pay for the pool boy to bring you a drink at the cabana and the towel you spread on the lounge.
Wow! What did I start??? Well, hearing about all of your experiences is very eye-opening!
I’m sad to hear that these nickel and dime experiences are nation-wide. It appears to be happening everywhere.
I am preferring to patronize the Mom and Pop businesses who personally know me, or my kids, and go out of their way to keep me as a customer. We order by phone and pick up. I don’t mind tipping them because I know there are only 6 employees at our local Mexican restaurant and their salsas are included, they add chips to every order. They add LIMES if we request them because not everyone likes limes and they dry very fast.
I’ll have to start checking and looking for fees on my CC.
I have noticed that the contractors we’ve been using lately for landscaping, stucco repair, and the pool repair are all requesting checks or cash or money order. They don’t want to pay the CC fees either.
(We don’t eat out that often because we got used to eating at home during the shut-down. I really don’t want to get sick. My daughter works from home and somehow ended up with the Omicron variant! She’s dog sick!)
My brother orders shirts for his summer sports league and they are big ticket items. He’s always paid by credit card, but this summer the company said ‘keep your money, pay by bank ACH.’ The businesses don’t want to pay either, so it is a win/win to just have the money transferred.
Most bigger businesses only pay 1% fee on credit cards. Are the businesses charging more on the restaurant charge? Really, they may pay more if they aren’t a big chain, but I’d think it would be a nightmare to keep all the different cards and the percentages straight. Amex is usually higher (and that’s why a lot of places won’t take it). I’m trying to work through (in my mind) if there is anything wrong with a retailer or restaurant charging a higher fee than they are paying. Are they then ‘lending’ money? I’m going to continue thinking about this.
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I understand charging for the lime. It’s not as though they grow on trees!
Local contractors use a different way of asking for it: 3-5% cash discount. 
They price the fees in.
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Sone of the contractors don’t want to declare the cash income and pay Medicare/SS taxes either so they give a cash discount.
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Many pay cash and get a 5-10% discount and then feel/boast how they got a great deal. The contractor got the great deal as he avoided significantly higher taxes…those that enjoy the benefits such as roads, schools, etc should realize that taxes are what covers the costs…
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Yep. A friend of ours is a contractor and has done work for us several times. He always wants cash. Once he said “if you write a check, I’ll have to pay taxes on it. They take like 30%! Do you know what that’s like?” Umm yeah. Welcome to our world lol.
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Our local pub starting adding a 3.95% surcharge on credit card usage a couple of months ago. At least they were very upfront about it. They had signs up a couple of weeks ahead of time indicating the date that would start. They have kept signs up at the bar, and it’s printed on their menus.
I believe there is still an ATM machine IN the pub. I will check tonight when we go to trivia.
Ate at a local restaurant last night that I go to fairly often. A 20% tip was added to each of our bills. I would have tipped that - or more - anyway but I like it to be my choice.
The waitress told us she actually made less in tips because few people then added more to the 20% when before her tips averaged more than that.
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Taking a cash discount to keep income off tax books is a big benefit but comes with economic and even criminal risk.
Charging for the use of a credit card (or offering a small cash discount) is a different calculation for different businesses depending on their size/cost of their fees. For a small business, it might make sense since their fees tend to be much higher and very few people handle the money over limited transactions. For larger businesses, the fees are much lower, record keeping is easier and there is greater security in taking payment by credit card (less possibility of employee theft or robbery). The fees are easily accounted for in the business’ pricing structure.
The lime one is funny. The bar now needs to add a new item on their POS system to register the lime. This adds to ring up time and slows the bartender down. Not sure this was a smart move. Most businesses would just add a “nickel” to every drink or cut smaller pieces of lime.
The kings of making people pay for what used to be included are the airlines (baggage fees, seat selection fees, change fees, even carry-on bag fees, etc…). Guess they needed this as it seemed airlines were in constant bankruptcies before.
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We have a local restaurant that charges extra for cheese on French Onion Soup and that was pre-pandemic.
I’ve never had any contractor who took a credit card, plumber, electrician, painter, mason - we are talking 5 figures. Always stop by the ATM before picking up a vehicle at the mechanic for the cash discount. I always get a receipt if I pay in cash vs. check.
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Lol, might be better marketed if they have “Onion Soup” at one price and “House Special Deluxe French Onion Soup” at another.
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I was going to say the same except I usually pay by check. However, our heating and air company does take credit cards. So there’s one.
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Huh, that’s kind of like charging extra for alcohol in a cocktail.
Martini without gin: $10
Martini with gin: $20
Olive: $.50
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I feel sorry for the poor servers that have to inform the customer that there’s a charge for the lime, and then bear the brunt of the eyerolling and protesting of a policy that the servers had nothing to do with.
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Every contractor we’ve hired (or got bids from) took credit cards but some offered 3-5% cash discount - “cash” meaning payment by a check. I would never hand a wad of cash to a contractor.
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I have no problem ignoring the tip prompt at a fast food restaurant.
What bothers me are the restaurants that add a % surcharge to pay for their employees healthcare costs. Why not just add it to the price of the entrée?
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