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Massachusetts Utilities Sidestep Surcharges on Credit-Card Payments.
- Article from:
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Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
- Article date:
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August 27, 2003
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Copyright informationCOPYRIGHT 2003 Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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By Bruce Mohl, The Boston Globe Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Aug. 27--NStar Corp. and a handful of other utilities are using outside vendors to sidestep a Massachusetts law that prohibits surcharges if a customer pays a bill with a credit card.
The utilities started allowing payments by credit card last fall, as a customer convenience. But rather than absorb the costs, they farm out the handling of the credit card transactions to third parties, which charge fees to cover their costs. Under the law, the vendors can charge the fees because they are merely processing the transactions, not selling anything.
NStar's outside vendor, for example, uses a ...