January 12, 2010 |
2010-R-0007 | |
CREDIT CARD PROCESSING FEES AND CASH DISCOUNTS FOR BUSINESSES | ||
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By: Duke Chen, Legislative Analyst |
You wanted to know if it is illegal to impose a fee on credit card purchases to cover the cost of processing the transaction. Also, you wanted to know if businesses are allowed to offer discounts to customers who pay with cash.
By law, businesses cannot charge customers more for paying with a credit card or any other means of payment, including cash and checks (CGS § 42-133ff(a)). But it allows them to offer discounts to induce customers to pay by cash, debit card, or other means rather than credit card (CGS § 42-133ff(c)).
DC:df/tjo