JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Hidden processing fees are hitting Floridians signing onto payment plans when purchasing high-priced items like cars, electronics, and cars, but Florida lawmakers are looking to ensure there\u2019s more transparency in the process. <\/p>\n
David Boyd is the finance manager at Castle Used Cars on Beach Boulevard.<\/p>\n
The company offers what are called Retail Installment Sales Agreements to its customers.<\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <<<<\/a><\/p>\n It\u2019s basically an option where, instead of taking out a loan and making payments to a bank, the customer agrees to pay back the price of their vehicle directly to the dealership over a period of time.<\/p>\n Boyd estimates that less than ten percent of customers choose the option.<\/p>\n \u201cPretty much the individuals who choose that type of financing, generally are people who are challenged credit-wise, you know? People who don\u2019t want to use outside financing or want their credit used,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just cars.<\/p>\n These types of agreements are common options for other big-ticket items like furniture and electronics as well.<\/p>\n There is a cost, though.<\/p>\n If customers choose to make payments using credit cards or debit cards, businesses might charge a fee to offset the price they have to pay to third-party processing companies.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a big expense because they\u2019re charging us as well as the consumer. You see, credit cards, they\u2019ve got their profit margin also,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n And while some companies like Castle Used Cars are up front about those extra fees, that\u2019s not always the case.<\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/a>]<\/p>\n Customers may be surprised to see the additional cost added to their payments, which generally averages around 3.5 percent of the total price of the transaction.<\/p>\n New legislation moving in the Florida Senate seeks to add more transparency by requiring businesses to disclose electronic payment fees on the initial contract.<\/p>\n It also requires them to offer a fee-less payment option like cash or check.<\/p>\n Boyd sees it as a win-win by allowing businesses the option to pass along the cost, while ensuring the customer fully understands the potential for additional costs on the front end.<\/p>\n \u201cIf a business is operating with integrity, they\u2019ll have no problem, you know, telling the customer and disclosing anything that they\u2019re doing,\u201d said Boyd.<\/p>\n The bill also requires the service charge to be \u201creasonably\u201d related to the actual expense incurred by the business for processing a payment. <\/p>\n Some lawmakers expressed concerns about the language in the bill\u2019s first committee stop, arguing it should be tightened down as the bill moves forward to ensure customers aren\u2019t overcharged.<\/p>\n The bill has two more stops in the Senate.<\/p>\n [SIGN UP: Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/a>] <\/p>\n Click here<\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, click here<\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and click here<\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Hidden processing fees are hitting Floridians signing onto payment plans when purchasing high-priced items like…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":118653,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[7477,59633,59632,59634,116,118,117,971,44784,59635,634],"class_list":{"0":"post-118652","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-beach_boulevard","9":"tag-castle_used_cars","10":"tag-david_boyd","11":"tag-florida_senate","12":"tag-jacksonville","13":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","14":"tag-jacksonville-news","15":"tag-jake","16":"tag-jake_stofan","17":"tag-lloyd","18":"tag-local"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118652","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=118652"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/118652\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/118653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=118652"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=118652"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=118652"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}