Surcharge defeats intent of cashless society

ALL banks should regulate their merchants to stop imposing credit/ debit card surcharges when customers use their credit or debit cards.

There is this rampant practice among some merchants of imposing a 2% surcharge for credit cards and 1% for debit cards.

While the banking industry is moving towards a cashless society with debit cards, this surcharge by some merchants is regressive to the original intent.

Why would anyone want to use a debit card and incur an additional 1% charge?

Since there is already a profit margin in the sale of goods by merchants, they should absorb the merchant charges and not pass them on to the consumers.

Those merchants who impose a surcharge should realise that a cashless transaction is for convenience, not to mention safety and security concerns as well.

A business transaction may be lost if a customer decides not to visit a particular merchant who imposes such surcharges. Extrapolate that situation and that would amount to a significant business loss. Merchants should not be short-sighted and just pass on the charges to consumers.

On the scale of things, a 1% or 2% surcharge is a significant amount to the consumer while it would be negligible to the merchants as there is already a profit margin and a probable potential larger cashless customer base, which translates to better business.

Bank Negara should look into this practice, and in engagement with all banks, regulate the imposition of these surcharges.