There seems to be a bit of buzz going around about this B of A surcharge and I thought it proper to calm things down just a bit.
First of all, all we know is what a customer of B of A told a reporter on a blog in Washington DC.
Second all that customer knows is what a very low level staff person told him at B of A.
Third of all, if we take the story on face value, the decision by the Bank affects payments to "government entities." Now I’m certainly not sure what that means and I don’t know if higher ed is included in this.
I have reached out to a number of vendors of parking equipment and some major cities and asked some questions. I hope they will be back to me soon.
I note that C Park L list server has a comment or two and they are talking about the concerns that vendors of parking equipment have with being PCI compliant and how this affects them. (Ie, if the banks are going to surcharge like this, then credit cards won’t be able to be used for small amount transactions, and so why care if your equiipment is PCI.)
I wouldn’t run out and buy non PCI equipment just yet. Let’s get to the bottom of this first. In any event, this doesn’t seem to affect the private sector at all, and there are a heck of a lot of credit card accepting machines in the lots and garages in non governmental sectors.
I’ll report back when I know anything.
JVH
