Hoping this is not the norm....

Rygar wrote:
To Dog Folks and Jfmk, it's hardly a matter of 1.86. $60.00 fuel was only about half a tank. I'm not worried about an amount that won't buy me a coffee. As a retailer for many years, i can tell you that visa/mastercard charge about 2% per transaction. About .08 cents a gallon. So it grates on me that I have to pay his expenses or "costs of doing business" on top of his markup. These expenses should be paid out of this markup which is over what he pays the supplier.
It's totally a principal issue. What next, another .10 cents a gallon to pay for him to keep the lights on? Maybe another .10 cents to upgrade his pumps. It's a slippery slope. The consumer is being screwed constantly. Also, what happened to our cashless society? Sorry for the rant, but thanks for calling me a cheapskate! It's guys like you that make me so happy to be on this forum.

That surcharge is actually a way for the merchant to offer his products at a lower charge to people who do not incur him an additional fee. Would you have felt better if when you paid there was a discount for cash instead of an upcharge for credit cards, even though they are exactly the same thing. By putting on a surcharge, the merchant is making the customer aware that how they pay has consequences. Charging extra for service that costs extra has been happening since the first exchange of dinosaur bones by the cavemen. The recent ruling that allows merchants to have a fee for credit card transactions is actually making commerce more transparent.
Guess you should fill up in Canada before you make your way into the US, or wait until you cross back before filling. Then you can pay about 25% more for your fuel, secure in the knowledge that all the fees in that Canadian fuel are properly hidden from the customer.