TWO out of every three Queensland traders will soon be slugging customers with a credit card surcharge as high as triple the actual payment fee it is meant to recoup.
A breakdown of national data for The Sunday Mail by banking researcher East & Partners shows 30 per cent of Queensland retailers now impose a surcharge on customers paying by credit card just above the national average of 28 per cent.
But that number is set to soar, with data showing another 37 per cent of Queensland businesses plan to introduce a credit card surcharge.
Queensland traders are hitting customers with an average credit card surcharge of 2.27 per cent of the total transaction.
Yet customers have complained of surcharges on Visa or Mastercard of at least 3 per cent adding $10 to a $350 purchase. This is despite the average trader paying fees of less than 1 per cent to Visa and Mastercard and 1.9 per cent for American Express transactions.
A survey by consumer group Choice, released late last year, found some merchants were cashing in with credit card surcharges higher than 10 per cent.
Angry consumers have swamped Choice's website complaining of not being given notice of surcharges, with Choice finding one in five survey respondents felt they had not been given enough warning.
Choice spokeswoman Ingrid Just said:
"It is an area that consumers are becoming increasingly frustrated over, particularly when surcharges aren't disclosed prominently upfront," she said.
Queensland Consumer Association spokesman Ian Jarratt said customers often paid by card to obtain loyalty points without realising the surcharge often outweighed the value of the points.
But some small retailers say they are being charged higher than average fees by card companies, forcing them to introduce surcharges to cope.
Owner of Capalaba gift shop Lara's House, Vic Smikoff, has refused to place surcharges on any card payments for fear of losing customers, leaving him to absorb fees of up 3 per cent for American Express transactions and 14 cents-16 cents per debit card transaction.
"It is hard because nothing is going down. Our rents keep on going up, the wages go up . . . so we are getting squeezed from every side," he said.
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