My totally legit mechanic (who I’ve been going to for like 20+ years) recently began imposing a 4% surcharge on card payments (and no longer take checks). This is pretty exorbitant for car repairs, and is clearly meant to encourage cash payments (or it could be interpreted as a total “fuck you” to their customers, but that doesn’t seem very smart for that to be their intention).

I’m wondering if other businesses are doing the same, to cut costs.

I found it obnoxious but at least… now I know. There is a large sign in the shop stating this, but my partner, who dropped off the car, doesn’t pay attention to his surroundings. So I only learned about it when I arrived to pick up and pay for it.