Credit card customers are still being ripped off
Reserve Bank reforms to stop excessive credit card surcharging were left in the hands of MasterCard, Visa and Amex to administer.
Seven months since the RBA rules kicked in, little has changed.
It's now clear that unless there is federal government invention credit card consumers will continue to be rorted.
According to the RBA, the average cost for a retailer to have transactions processed by banks (the merchant service fee) is 0.81% for MasterCard and Visa and $1.79% for American Express.
Andrew Cartwright, MasterCard country manager, Australia, says high levels of excessive surcharges and blended surcharges (where different cards are charged the same rate regardless of what the merchant fee for that card actually is) are still a big concern.
The biggest culprits are the airlines and Cabcharge: Qantas charges $7 per passenger per booking (credit and charge card); Virgin Australia charges $7.70 per passenger per booking (credit and debit cards); Jetstar charges $8.50 per passenger per flight (credit and debit cards); and Cabcharge charges up to 11% for every credit and debit transaction.
Matt Levey, head of campaigns at the consumer publisher Choice, says that beyond a marginal adjustment from Qantas there has been a deafening silence since the Reserve Bank's rule change.
Jetstar and Virgin Australia were quick to rename their surcharge as a booking and service fee while Cabcharge changed it to a service fee.
More than 42,000 consumers have voiced their objection to Jetstar's fees on the online petition site change.org.
Jetstar does point out that there are ways customers can avoid the fee, such as by using the POLi online payment system.
But whatever you want to call them a "booking and service fee" of up to $8.50 per passenger per flight is a blatant rip-off.
And let's not even start on cinema online "booking fees" and why they differ between standard tickets and gold class.
Until we have a government agency to monitor and enforce limits, it seems consumers will have to wear the costs of paying by credit card.
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