Credit cards: is this the end of the great rip-off?
It was reported that at midnight on Friday the 12th of January, a rip-off that has cost Britons hundreds of millions of pounds a year was finally outlawed: debit and credit card charges. All extra charges for using a credit or debit card to pay for goods and services have now been banned, which means no more nasty surprises at the checkout, says the government.
But some companies are already finding sneaky ways to get around the ban – such as simply renaming the fee so that it removes any reference to cards. Earlier this week, online takeaway company Just Eat faced a customer backlash after it scrapped its 50p card payment charge and replaced it with a 50p “service charge” on all orders, which applies whether someone is paying with cash or a card.
