During the pandemic, it is now common to see convenience fees in many industries and businesses - for grocery delivery and pickup, restaurant delivery and pickup, to help cover increased overhead costs for sanitizing and other regulation.

The other "convenience fee" that is becoming more mainstream is a fee for the convenience of using a credit card.  In technical terms, it is called surcharging, but many business owners think of it as a fee passed on to the customer for the convenience of using a credit card vs paying in cash.  Typical fees charged are 3.99%.  On a $10 sale that translates to roughly .40 cents per transaction.   

While this seems like a relatively small amount, for a business when you add that up over all your credit card transactions, now we are talking some real money.  For a customer with $50,000 in monthly credit card sales, this translates into ~ $2,000 savings in credit card fees per month or $24,000 per year!  Now that gets a person's attention.  

This is an ongoing series of articles about cash discounting and surcharging programs.

I recently returned from a conference and attended a session by Clearent to learn more about this hot topic in the payment world.  The number one take away from this conference - you need to follow the rules very carefully - and work with a partner that knows what they are doing!