Everyone in NJ needs to stop whining about restaurant credit card surcharges (Opinion)

A new trend has been sweeping the restaurant industry and our show has been abuzz with it lately. The small charge at the bottom of your bill for using a credit card.

The other night I went for dinner, and at the bottom of my check, noticed the dreaded “non-cash surcharge" of 3.95%.

What does that mean? Restaurants in New Jersey and in other parts of the country have begun to charge you extra for using a credit card because they have to pay extra to the credit card companies.

I find it funny that people have complained about this so much. We hear about it on the air all the time. Yet, what about this common scenario: Because we are so used to it, nobody has a problem with the idea that our tips supplement a server’s salary.

That’s something the restaurant industry in this country decided eons ago— that they would pay their servers a crazy low wage and that tips would make up for it.

It sounds just as unfair to the customer as the credit card penalty but yet we willingly participate in that system because it’s become the way it is.

New Jersey has made it difficult enough for restaurants to do business and the pandemic dealt a final blow to so many. They need a way to squeeze every little penny from their customers that they can.

This is just another way that the free market operates. If a restaurant does this and you don’t like it, you go to another restaurant. If all restaurants do this, you have two options. You can either start carrying cash with you when you go out for dinner or don’t go out for dinner.

This is the new normal, kids.

Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Judi Franco only.

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