Comment by BeetleB

Interesting to hear this. I was once visiting Canada about a decade ago and tuned in to a radio station (likely some local CBC station), and they were debating this very issue: Can it be made legal for businesses to charge more for CC transactions?

I learned one thing:

The amount a CC charges the business is not fixed - and cards with rewards result in a higher fee for the business.

At some point a retired CC industry shill (who clearly identified his background) called in and his explanation on all this was the most reasonable:

In the vast majority of cases, a business's revenue goes up by accepting CC payments. Some of it is because customers have become accustomed to paying with it and may not carry cash, but the bulk of it is due to the convenience - and this is heavily backed up by research: The easier and more convenient you make transactions, the more consumers spend. The amount businesses pay the CC company in fees is more than compensated for by the increased revenue.

Most businesses will treat these fees as part of the cost of doing business, and price their products accordingly. Just as they do when their utility rates go up or the price of gas goes up.

Businesses support the campaigns about this issue so that they can get the best of both worlds: Increased revenue due to CC usage as well as passing those fees on to the consumer. They are not waging this battle to benefit the consumer, but to offload a cost of doing business to the consumer. In principle, this is all fine, but the consumers need to be aware of it! Ultimately the consumer is paying those fees whether a business charges extra for it or not.

And of course, if the goods that business is selling is priced the same as other businesses not passing that charge on directly, then the consumer is "double paying" - the goods' price already has that fee baked into it even if they pay cash, and when they pay by card, they'll pay it twice at those businesses.

Having known some business owners, his take is highly believable :-)

As an example, the AirBnB cleaning fee is not just for cleaning, but a way for the host to make extra money (easy to Google, and I know multiple hosts personally). Almost any business that charges extra for optional amenities is using it as a way to make even more money.

And that was the CC shill's ultimate point. CC companies are doing things to increase their revenue, as are the businesses. A given business may say they're campaigning for this in order to benefit the consumer, but in most cases they're not really benefiting the consumer and are simply trying to increase their revenue. The exception is when they really do have reduced prices compared to other stores.