Aussie diner fumes over ‘hidden’ fee on their dinner bill

An Aussie diner has vented their frustration after they were forced to pay almost $4 extra in surcharges for their dinner at a restaurant. 

The diner was left outraged after noticing their $36.96 bill on Saturday had been hit with two extra surcharges, increasing their cost by 10.79 per cent to $40.19.  

A 0.79 per cent surcharge was added because they paid by card while a 10 per cent surcharge was tacked on because it was the weekend. 

The diner claimed there was ‘not a single sign’ notifying customers of the surcharges, claiming the trend has become all too common at venues.

‘It seems nothing is actually priced the amount they advertise,’ they wrote on Reddit.

‘The fees are never explained nor are they listed anywhere in the shop, they just hand you the EFTPOS machine without saying a word.

‘I wonder how much money I’m actually spending on fees a year now.’ 

Social media users were quick to sympathise with the diner saying they were equally fed-up by the hidden surcharges.

‘A surcharge for Saturday, (I) wouldn’t go there again,’ one commented.

‘Where’s the breathing the restaurant air surcharge,’ a second joked. 

One, who was from Perth, said they ‘naturally copped these surcharges’ when they recently visited Sydney.

‘My sympathies to all you living there, it is so bloody expensive eating out,’ they wrote.

Some took the chance to spruik the benefits of using cash as it didn’t incur surcharges.

‘Insist on cash… It’s a swindle to use the “convenience” of a card swipe,’ one wrote. 

‘I’ve gone back to cash due to all the surcharges… Once you pay attention to them, it’s an eye watering amount,’ another wrote.

Others noted the 0.79 per cent card surcharge was relatively low, with some charging 1.5 per cent on Visa or Mastercard transactions. 

The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) outlaws businesses from not properly notifying customers of any surcharges they will incur. 

It’s also illegal for customers to pay card surcharges more than what the business is paying to process the payment.

The amount passed on from a business varies and depends on a number of factors such as the ‘the size of the business, the technology used, and the payment method’.

This can lead to some businesses charging upwards of 1.5 per cent for Visa and Mastercard transactions while American Express can cost as much as 3 per cent more. 

Research by Canstar found the average Aussie was spending about $140 per year on electronic transaction surcharges, adding up to about $4billion annually.

Canstar finance expert Steve Mickenbecker said the increase could mostly be explained by skyrocketing rate of inflation.

‘Most fees are paid as a percentage of the price of the transaction, the purchase price, and it goes up automatically with inflation,’ he told 9News .

‘So the bank doesn’t have to put your rate up, you just get charged more as the retailer, and of course that’s then passed on to the consumer.’

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