This will be an interesting outcome should the fees be passed on to the user.

As a retailer I pay fees ranging from .5 to 3% for accepting EFTPOS credit cards.

These fees fund the likes of fly bys and while I don't pass them on, I don't blame some retailers. Although fees such as airline booking fees have long been a joke.

Eftpos is a convenience and fees for using any convenience should be born by the user in my view.

I can see your problem rehctub, & it must be a real problem for those on low margins like service stations. A number of people in my local town prefer me to pay by cheque. They know they have no problem with my cheques, I'm one of the old breed who only buy things they can afford to pay for in cash, & it saves them that bank percentage.

However one supplier said that his bank were now charging the same fee to process a cheque. I wonder if this is really true.

I am turning more to cash for local purchases, & Paypal for purchases online.

I have never had a credit card, & have a debit card on a totally different bank to my main accounts, to phone pay power bills, rates phone etc. by phone. I don't do this stuff online. I recently changed power supplier when the old one wanted to charge me a percentage for card use. I guess that is a no from me.

Just wait for countries to go cashless, then the grubby bankers will be able to put more and higher fees on things.

Especially as in some countries that have negative interest rates, you are literally forced to use the banks.

rehctub, "Eftpos is a convenience and fees for using any convenience should be born by the user in my view"

It was an experiment foisted on the public, who were quite resistant and doubting (for good cause it appears), because the consumer ran all the serious risks.

Cash pays, cash payments and where necessary cheques, suited the public.

You will have to look elsewhere for those who saw convenience in it and you could substitute profits for convenience. Just think of the numbers of Tellers sacked, for instance.

I could almost have written Hasbeen's post myself, word for word.

Cash is the 3rd-best way to go, 2nd-best is barter, 1st-best is to freely give when you have excess and receive whatever you receive without expectations.

As we already progressed quite a way down the garden path, the best two options are beyond most of us, but let us at least try to hang onto the third!

It seems as if some devil out there has set a trap for humanity, making it further and further dependent on electronics, further and further divorced from the physical (let alone the spiritual) and breeding a new generation that doesn't even know how to live without electronic crutches, then this devil can at once turn off the switch and finish off humanity in one stroke. Strong and directed magnetic activity in the sun can do it, or a nearby super-nova.

So I welcome all attempts to curb the dependence on electronics, including fees on EFTPOS. Even if the purpose for that was other than fighting the devil, it still contributes somewhat.

I only use a debit card, and the money is out of my account before I leave the business premises. I don't know about credit cards, but I think that it really stinks that a retailer has to pay a fee for accepting a card. Who is to blame for that? Banks, government? All the talk about a cashless society, yet certain forces are are making the whole thing too expensive.

ttbn, pay pass is becoming very popular but many customers don't like it because the money can take up to three days to leave their account, yet, with the exception of W/ends their money hits my account that night. That ones got me stuffed as it appears the banks are out of picket.

They do of cause clean up on overdrawn fees because people effectively spend their money twice. That's a real catch. And I agree that businesses should not have to pay fees but I guess those fly bys have to be paid from somewhere.