Copy link Copied Copy link Copied Subscribe to gift this article Gift 5 articles to anyone you choose each month when you subscribe. Already a subscriber? Login It’s the hidden cost for everything from a cup of coffee to a bag of groceries that has shoppers hopping mad. And the now-ubiquitous credit card surcharge is fast becoming an issue in the halls of Canberra, where politicians are weaponising it as evidence that retailers and banks are out to take every last dollar at the expense of their customers.
For Philip Barbaro, who runs Avenue on Chifley in the centre of Sydney’s financial district, it’s just a way to recoup the $80,000 he pays every year to make it possible for his customers to use their credit cards. “We thought about recouping it in the cost on the menu, but then you get deemed expensive,” Avenue on Chifley owner Philip Barbaro says about credit card surcharges. Dominic Lorrimer “We are between a rock and a hard place,” he says.
“Hand on my heart, I was so reluctant in charging this fee, but we have to survive.” Barbaro has run the cafe beneath Chifley Tower, an office complex home to the country’s biggest investment banks and law firms, for more than two decades. Nine months ago, he added 7¢ to the price of a $4.
20 coffee. At the heart of the issue is whether businesses should pass on the cost of credit card services, and who exactly is ultimately profiting. Merchants like Barbaro say they are being slugged for each payment; the banks an.
