If you pay for a meal with a credit card, you may also write the tip in rather than leaving a cash tip. In some restaurants, servers may not get the full gratuity you wanted them to receive. Credit card issuers charge merchants a processing fee on all credit card transactions. Merchants may pass the tip portion of the transaction along to the server.
Steak 'N Shake recently asked their servers to agree to pay the 2.5% processing fee on credit card tips. So, instead of a $5.00 tips, the server would only get $4.86. The other $.13 would go to the credit card issuer. It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up. Besides, should servers really have to pay a fee to get the tips they've already earned?
Not all restaurants ask employees to pay the credit card processing fee. And some state laws may prevent them from doing so. You can always ask your server if they receive 100% of tips paid with a credit card. The best way to make sure your server gets their full tip - pay with cash.
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