Why the sur charge with credit cards???

4000fps

Anyone know why the 3% or 4% is charged when using a credit card by just about everyone selling on any auction site? All the gun shops around me do this also. I found a seller here that has really good prices and does not charge the sur charge. One phone call to his shop and the gun arrives 2 days later. Best seller I have found on numerous firearms sites. Now its just tooooo easy. Oh well never too many.

interstatepawnllc

Here is the dang deal. THERE is VERY little monies to be made selling firearms. Most dealers are making only 10% over cost on the firearms they sell. The C.C. merchant facilitators, (banks) are charging the merchant 2-4% of the total sale price of the charge. So the guy is really only making in reality 6-8% profit on the sale of the firearm. DO THE MATH!!

gars320

That's correct, also if I add the price that CC Co's charge, to the opening bid price I may be making somebody pay for the credit card useage who will be paying by MO anyway and shouldn't have to pay for CC.

Nil Illegitimus Carborundum

Ronald J. Snow

In the State of Maine it is illegal to add a surcharge for a customers use of a credit card. That is why stores, filling stations and like allow a discount for cash or simply do not take credit cards.

steve45

Anytime you use a credit card it costs the seller money. On an item like guns with only a 10% markup that three percent you pay for the use of the credit card becomes important.

Hizzoner

You all are correct. Credit card companies typically charge 3-5% fee for processing the card. WHy shouldn't the seller pass that cost on to the buyer? The buyer wants the "convenience" of using the card.

Hizzoner

---

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Benjamin Franklin, 1759

duckhunter

GREAT REPLYS. YOU GUYS KNOW YOUR STUFF. ONE THING NOT SAID THE COST OF DOING BUSINESS IF YOU GET A CARD USER THAT CANCELS THE TRANSACTION. WHO PAYS THAT COST?? ME.

I WOULD RATHER BE DUCK HUNTING.

5db

4000fps, just for you...... Credit Card service providers say it is against the law to charge additional fees for use of CC to make a transaction. (folks that have waited on the 800# for problem solving have heard the spiel.) I can understand the reasoning behind the practice but would suggest a discount for the customer paying cash rather than an additional charge for the one using a CC this could be done in setting the price. Just my .02.

If you have one shot...Accu-Shot Website

lrarmsx

4000fps, if you are not already aware of it, here is the low down. Credit card companies or rather credit card services charge the dealer or merchant for the privelage of you being able to use your card. Yes, thats right, they charge you for using your card and they charge them for you using your card. They make money coming and going. Say a customer buys a gun, with his credit card, for $500. The dealer doesn't get $500. Depending on the volume of business he does each year the credit card service will charge anywhere from less than 1% to as much as 5-7%. Lets say it is 4%, on that $500 gun the dealer loses $20. That is what the card company takes out for their cut. So the dealer doesn't get $500 for his gun, he only gets $480.

Many dealers will cut you a break if it isn't going on a card, if it is cash or even a check. Some people think this is a way the dealer can hide the sale or something else silly like that. In fact if the dealer knows that you are going to pay with a card on that $500 gun, he may stick at the $500 price. If you indicate that it will be cash instead of a card, he may take $20 off the price. Either way he is only going to get $480. It is up to you to decide whether the $20 goes back in your pocket or to the card company.

Credit cards are an incredible scam. What a great deal for them. You spend money, they make money. You can't pay all of your balance on time, they make money. You make a few late payments or miss some payments, they raise you APR, they make even more money.

On the other hand credit cards give us the ability to order through the mail, over the phone, and over the net. They give us the ability to buy things right now that we otherwise could not afford. But don't think they come without a cost, to you and those that except your card. As the saying goes, nothing comes for free.

So when you see some dealer charging extra for you using your card, he isn't being greedy or rude, he is just trying to not lose any more money to the card companies. In most cases, they will charge only the 3-4% that they themselves are being charged, nothing more. Why doesn't Walmart or other large stores tag on anything for you using a card? Well first of all, it is worked into their prices. Second, they do so much business as a chain every year that the card companies could charge 1/2 of 1% or less and still make millions each year. Third they don't trade. Fourth they having bigger profit margins. Fifth, everyone doesn't know their wholesale cost (like in the gun business).

Regardless, when a dealer is making a mark up of 10%, losing 3-4% to a card company just doesn't seem fair. The card company doesn't have rent, utilities, or other expenses at that store to pay, the dealer does. There have been times that I've seen a gun sell where the card company made more on it than the dealer did. And all they had to do was get you to use their card, what a deal....for the Credit Card Companies.

dads-freehold

greetings, i agree with 5db a discount to cash buyers is more user friendly. respt submitted dads-freehold

rodney colson

offeror

It depends on your point of view. You can say it's the buyer's "fault" for "wanting the convenience of using the card," or you can say it's the seller's wish to be competitive with every other business in town by offering the convenience of taking the card, most of whom do not charge anything for the so-called privilege. You have just been deluged by one rather narrow point of view in favor of sellers, but I tend not to buy the idea. If you choose not to compete by not offering to take credit cards, that's your thing. But I don't believe sellers in gun shops or on eBay have "the right" to make every penny back that it costs them to do business, given that they do have a profit margin built into their sales anyway. Breaking out CC's as a special cost strikes me as self-serving, because they're liable to lose the same amount or more in sales to other dealers who don't charge a surcharge. I take PayPal payments, and you can bet I don't charge my buyers my PayPal fee -- it comes out of however high the bid goes. It's bad enough to have to charge extra for shipping, without dunning my winner because he had the audacity to pay by PayPal, whose instant credit is a convenience to me. Actually, the concept of 3% extra for credit cards began on sales that were more like fire-sale items at dealer cost, and I believe on gasoline where price changes might involve a penny or two a gallon. The habit then slowly spread like a virus to the retail market.

Sorry guys, this argument is not an easy sell to a consumer like me. I'll shop around and find the guy who doesn't find it "necessary" to pass along the hit.

- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

Edited by - offeror on 08/05/2002 21:54:52

offeror

I would only add that my faith in some gun dealers has been cracked by one or two who have insisted that they only make $50 profit on a gun, and then I find out in Shotgun News what they're really paying. Take a look at Gun List right now, then look up G3 Carbines on GB, and you'll find the difference on this surplus item is about $150 on a surplus clone rifle that sounds like a buy at $450 but not at well over $600 by the time you pay shipping transfer fee and maybe state sales tax.

- Life NRA Member
"If cowardly & dishonorable men shoot unarmed men with army guns, the evil must be prevented by the penitentiary...and not by general deprivation of constitutional privilege." - Arkansas Supreme Court, 1878

michael minarik

Charging for CC use is I-L-L-E-G-A-L, in many more states than the majority of people know. It is Federal violation(i think) there was an extensive article brought to light in GB forum discussion awhile back. I forwarded that posting to a friend of mine and I am searching for it now. If I find it I will repost it here.

lrarmsx

Charging for taking a card or giving a discount for cash ends up being the same thing, you just don't always see the discount for cash in black and white. At most stores there is a set price. At most gun stores you should be able to negotiate a better price on the higher cost items. Try that at the grocery store or department store. If any of you know of the percentage of mark up at a clothing store or furniture store, you'd probably never want to sell guns, there's no profit margin. For those not in the "know" most retail stores of furniture and/or clothing have mark-ups from 100% to over 600%. If you ever see a gun dealer with an over 600% mark up on a gun or other regular product they sell, let me know.