So yeah, I emailed VISA to complain that my local gas company charges a “convenience fee” to those who pay with a credit card. That really ticks me off. Here’s what VISA had to say:
“Dear Pace McCulloch,
Thank you for contacting us. Visa has certain regulations that all
merchants which accept Visa cards must follow. Visa merchants are not
permitted to:
Establish minimum or maximum transaction amounts, even on sale items.
Submit a Visa sales draft for a dishonored check.
In general, pass on the merchant’s transaction fee to the cardholder as
a Visa “service charge,” “service fee,” or “surcharge,” even on sale
items. A merchant may offer a discount for cash however, the cardholder
must be made aware of this prior to entering into the transaction.
Require a Visa cardholder to sign a sales draft that does not have a
specific amount indicated.
Merchants may not refuse to honor a Visa card simply because the
cardholder refuses a request for supplementary information/ID.
Please contact the disputes area at the financial institution that
issued your card account of any merchant practices that you feel are
inappropriate. Your card issuing bank has access to the appropriate Visa
rules and regulations as well as to the Notification of Customer
Complaint forms which should be used by your bank to document and file
merchant complaints. It is not necessary for your bank to be the
offending merchant’s financial institution in order to file a complaint
for you.
As an alternative, to report merchant practices that you feel are
inappropriate, you may wish to contact the Global Customer Care Services
at 1-800-VISA-911 (1-800-847-2911). Please advise them that you were
referred to file a complaint. The staff will be able to initiate a
complaint form over the phone.
We hope this information proves helpful.
Thank you for writing,
Visa Webmaster”