A Leash Above

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Credit Card Processing Fee Not Legal in Texas

You may have heard about a settlement last summer with retailers and credit card companies that would allow a business to charge you a credit card processing fee. At the end of January, that became law. Of course, many businesses will continue to believe it is just the part of doing business and you might not have the cost passed on to you (in the states where it is legal to assess the fee).

While this may be valid in many states, TEXAS is NOT one of them. In fact, the other states are California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York and Oklahoma have some sort of law either limiting or restricting these fees. Recently I have been told that some pet sitting businesses in Texas, including some in The Woodlands, are charging you not only a fee, but sometimes even more than the 4% maximum of the transaction (if you happened to live in a state that allowed it, which again Texas does NOT).

In the state of Texas, the only entity that can charge you a credit card processing fee is the government (for example, for property taxes or other fees). It is not just for businesses located in Texas. No business, including those in other states, can charge a resident of the state of Texas a credit card processing fee. Retailers in the United States cannot assess these credit card processing fees to buyers in other countries either.

We promise to stay on top of laws that might affect businesses and our customers. We value and appreciate you.

To read more about this, visit Visa’s web site at: http://usa.visa.com/personal/using_visa/checkout_fees/index.html

To read more about this from the State of Texas Office of the Attorney General, please visit their site at:
https://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/credit_cards.shtml

If you are a resident of Texas and have been charged a credit card processing fee, please use this link to register a complaint. https://www.oag.state.tx.us/consumer/complain.shtml