Credit card surcharge MEL F1rst Duty Free

[MEL_Traveller]

Tried to find an appropriate thread for this but to no avail.

The other day arriving at MEL F1rst duty free charged a 1.5% surcharge for Mastercard. I asked them about it and they reckon it has been approved.

Thoughts? I would think it strange that a company as big as F1rst would have a bank fee that high?

 

[albyd]

What was the Amex rate? Duty free in SYD have it too. It’s like a ‘welcome to Australia’ charge.

You wonder whether the cost of acceptance is that high for a merchant that turns over so much.

 

[JohnK]

Last time I used Amex in SYD duty free in August the surcharge was only 1% from memory.

 

[dajop]

I wonder if they take a higher proportion of foreign cards than a regular business, such that the average fee they pay is higher?

 

[MEL_Traveller]

I wonder if they take a higher proportion of foreign cards than a regular business, such that the average fee they pay is higher?

Don’t know... although i thought the charge could only be in respect of the individual transaction? So they couldn’t, for example, average their total credit card costs and divide those by the number of transaction?