eNom charges 3% of refill amount and hence their lost price becomes $6.95 x 1.03 = $7.1585

Is my calculation correct?

Yes that's correct. but if you pay by check or bank transfer you can escape the charge.

It's credit card processing fee.
Most of registrars do the same thing

Originally posted by Vladimir S.
It's credit card processing fee.
Most of registrars do the same thing And, if I am not mistaken, it is ILLEGAL (or at least against VI/MC/merchant TOS) to charge extra/impose fees for the convenience or privilege of accepting a credit card for payment vs. other payment methods accepted for the same product.

Cash or Credit USED to have different pricing at gas stations, for example, here in the USA before these tactics were done away with. Now the expense of merchant fees are considered a cost of doing business, to be built into the price of goods and services along with other operating costs.

How do they get away with this?

Its illegal but most registrars charge for accepting credit card(for resellers)

Oh well? Send a check or wire them the money.

Originally posted by kohashi
Oh well? Send a check or wire them the money.
That is missing the point. I am not disputing that there are methods to avoid these illegal fees.

What I want to know is how they can get away with this practice in the first place? Is it simply a matter that no one has complained to MC/VI/etc about their business practices yet?

It's usually not illegal to charge fees for credit card transactions, but rather a violation of the terms of the contract between card issuers and merchants. (And gas stations used to give a discount for cash, rather than charging a higher price for credit -- it amounted to the same thing from the consumer's perspective, but technically it didn't violate that contract provision. The price differentials disappeared because consumers didn't like them and they therefore weren't profitable for gas stations, not because the government made them illegal or card issuers cracked down on them.)

It's possible that the type of transaction you're talking about is excluded from that contract provision, perhaps because you're funding an account rather than making a purchase, or perhaps because this is considered a merchant transaction rather than a consumer transaction. If you complain, either they'll ignore you (most likely) or at best they'll just raise their prices for everyone regardless of payment mechanism. I'm guessing that their margins are low enough that they're not going to be able to eliminate the credit card fees and just swallow the lost revenue.

(The best argument against these extra fees is probably that they're deceptive -- an argument that depends on how the company markets itself. If they advertise one price prominently and then sneak in additional fees without disclosing them in advance, you might have a stronger claim that they're engaging in a deceptive practice. Again, this might depend on whether you're a consumer or a merchant yourself -- and if you are a "reseller," that's going to look a lot more like a merchant, making your case for deceptive practices much harder.)

Not just registrars are imposing these fees... now in many counties in the US you can pay for your property taxes with a credit card. And you can pay your income taxes, too, with the IRS and many states. They get around the agreement with Visa and MasterCard, I believe, by calling them "convenience fees." Basically they state that you are paying the extra fee for immediate or quicker posting of the payment to your account. Of course, to accomplish this immediate credit, a credit or debit card is required. Hence you supposedly pay, not for using a credit card, but for the convenience of having your payment be processed quicker.

And with the registrars, this is true to some extent. When I go to recharge my account, I know that I can send in a check and wait (snail mail is awful sometimes - sometimes not). Or I can pay the 3% and have it recharged immediately by using... yes, a credit card.

Anyway, it doesn't bother me. I know I have a choice and I don't believe that everyone should pay more if I decide to use my credit card.

Thank you for your explainations, chicago and 4solutions. That helps make sense. I didnt want to make a complaint, I simply didnt understand how these policies were allowed to prevail.

Best Regards,
Eric