It's A Gas Gas Gas

Eighteen gas stations in eastern Long Island are charging more than $2 per gallon credit card fees, according to CBS 2 New York. (H/t Consumerist.)

Suffolk County's Weights and Measures Bureau has received 23 complaints about the issue in the past few days alone, according to CBS 2. One customer reported being charged a $15 service fee for using a debit card.

Credit card surcharges are forbidden by law, but there's nothing against a discount for cash.  Clearly, instead of following the spirit of the law, the answer is to hike the price past ridiculous and then slash it for cash.

This is the beginning of a bad trend.  Credit card companies win in the end, it's just a matter of who pays the fee.  Consumers are at the mercy of greed and abuse, and this is only one of many schemes to overcharge.  I'd be against it if they had hard data to show a few cents per gallon made the math work.  But fifteen dollar fees that aren't made clear?  Doubling gas prices or more on a per-gallon basis to use cards?

Bullshit, I say.