Restaurant charge - is this normal?

Many places near me do charge the credit card fee and frankly, they seem upset when you use cash. I don’t think they carry much cash for making change. I haven’t yet seen the health care charge. I guess they want you to know where your money is going.

I live in NY and restaurants are allowed to pass along the credit card fees but there's some nuance to it - the establishment can not charge a fee for using a credit card, it has to be presented as a cash discount. I've been in restaurants where both prices are printed on the menu or there is a notice somewhere about the option for a cash discount.

I'm surprised there are places where this is not required. I wouldn't go into a regular store and expect to be charged more than the price on the sticker, nor would I pay more.

I haven't seen an employee health care charge on a check and while I am 100% in favor of everyone having proper insurance, the cost of health care is not based on sales. There is no way of knowing if all employees are eligible (i.e. part time employees) or if they are required to pay a portion of the premiums. It feels like way for restaurants to pull on customers' heartstrings to increase their bottom line. Just increase menu prices and call it a day.

And now we deal with stuff like this

www.instagram.com/reel/C6hnC_oIX4F/?igsh=cTFyeTFjZmlrZ3U4

Grossly inaccurate tip amounts for the percentage you choose. ( I have seen this but I tip cash, and I was aggravated enough to lower my tip to %15 by it. )

They are probably loosing as much as the scam with things like this as people aren’t as stupid as they think they are

If most of your sales are paid with a credit card (for example an online business where CC payment is the client’s only option) then it makes sense to roll that expense into your COGS because everyone is paying it anyway. But in a scenario where there are more payment options available, as a consumer I appreciate being given the option to save that 3-4% especially for larger purchases.

Say you need some electrical work done on your home and the invoice the electrician hands you totals $2000. If you whip out your credit card to pay (which many, many people do just out of habit), and the electrician’s credit card fees amount to $80 on that sale, do you really think it’s fair for the electrician to just absorb that? Multiply that out by 20 clients a month and you’re looking at credit card fees of $3600. Those fees are being paid by someone, just because the client decides to pay with a card.

Or conversely the electrician says to him or herself, “Dang I’m being killed by all these credit card fees. Maybe I should just raise my prices by $100 per job to offset that cost so it’s not coming out of my profits.” Now EVERY customer is paying $2100 for the same job, regardless of how they pay, and then they turn around and say, “Wow, those electricians sure are expensive! Can anybody refer a REASONABLE electrician?” They just can’t win.

My DH is a repair contractor and in our experience, we went from having about 3/4 of our clients paying with a credit card purely out of habit to less than 5% paying that way once he started telling them there would be a 4% additional charge to use a card to pay. Funny when that extra charge is coming out of the client’s pocket, they’re pretty quick to find a check or cash instead. We literally cut our merchant processing fees by over $30K annually by giving clients the option to pay another way that doesn’t cost us anything extra.

And back to your bowl of pasta scenario, of course you realize the restaurant isn’t actually making $43 profit on that $45 bowl of pasta. They have countless expenses that have to be paid in addition to the actual food costs such as rent, taxes, insurance, utilities, wages, spoilage/waste/theft, trash collection, and myriad other random things like take out containers, paper goods, dishes and cookware that sometimes need to be replaced, furniture that gets broken or worn out, building and lot maintenance, etc. A percentage of ALL of those expenses are coming out of that gross sale of $45. Restaurants in particular have very low actual profit margins which is why so many of them fail within the first five years.

Yes, and while waiting on me the waitstaff can inform me of the fee PRIOR to presenting with the bill.

As I said, I have relatives that are/were waitstaff if the fee goes to the corporation and yet the waitstaff is excluded from health care insurance for random technicalities I’m not on board paying it and that’s the most likely reason for keeping it a big secret.

I have had no problem paying the fees if I was made aware.

No worries, if it gets to the point of me paying my bill & no one informed me of this random charge I’ll pay my bill. Period. But I will not be back. The only reason for keeping it secret is that there’s something fishy in how the business is handling the fee. If the waitstaff is getting their healthcare insurance then there isn’t any need to keep this random charge a big secret.

Our local Tex-Mex place has a sign on the door that there is a 3% charge for using a card. I like that they are up front about it but paying 3% is less of a hassle than getting cash so I willingly pay it. Plus, I know that they are just getting by and if the 3% helps, I'll pay it.

I’m another that sees offering health insurance as a cost of doing business and should be added in to the cost. To me personally it feels like “see, we’re doing the right thing but only if YOU help us”. Agree with the other people who said you don’t see this in other businesses. My boss doesn’t send an invoice with a surcharge for my insurance on there.

My other issue is healthcare is a static cost per year you sign up in general. What happens if the restaurant starts getting rave reviews and ups their business 25% for the next few months. That increases that surcharge amount, too. Put it towards next year’s premiums? Drop the surcharge percentage because they’re making more than they need for the premiums? Give out bonuses to the employees for their added work? My cynical guess is the company banks it.