A few weeks ago, I was about to pay the HVAC technician who had repaired my home’s heat pump. Out of habit, I pulled a credit card from my wallet — I figured I’d earn rewards on this pricey transaction — but then the tech warned me that his company assesses a 3% surcharge on credit card payments. Thankful for the heads-up, I wrote him a check instead.

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Credit card surcharges aren’t new, but they’re becoming more common. According to J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study, “34% of merchants are adding surcharges for customer purchases made using credit cards.” Compare that number to just a year before, when 20% of merchants reported assessing surcharges, per a 2024 State of the Industry Report from CMSPI, a payments consultancy firm.

Surcharging at restaurants, in particular, can at times feel like the rule, not the exception. One Reddit thread from August 2025 pointedly asked: “Since when did 3% CC [credit card] fees at restaurants become the new normal?” In other words, why now?

Several factors are at play, but a short version is that it’s simply become more expensive, over time, for businesses to accept credit cards, and surcharges help offset those costs.

The practice, though, is changing the math for users of rewards credit cards. While it used to be a no-brainer to pick up the tab with a card that earns a flat 2% back, now that same decision on a bill with a 3% surcharge could result in a loss.

“We’re approaching a tipping point where consumers are actively saying they won’t pay the surcharge,” says Don Apgar, director of the merchant payments practice at Javelin Strategy & Research.

In the moment — stuck in the restaurant booth when the check arrives — you don’t exactly have much of a choice. But you do have longer-term options.

» MORE: NerdWallet’s best credit cards for restaurants

Why surcharges exist

The payment processing company Stripe defines a surcharge as “an additional fee that a business may add to a transaction when a customer pays with a credit card,” meant to recoup “the costs that the business incurs for processing credit card payments.” These costs to businesses, known as interchange fees, totaled more than $160 billion in 2022, according to Stripe.

Interchange fees are set by the payment networks that credit cards run on: Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover. The rewards that your credit card earns — cash back, points or miles — are largely funded by those interchange fees. As such, merchants generally pay more in interchange fees to accept rewards cards as a payment method. Apgar estimates that 75% of the credit cards that consumers pay with today earn rewards.

It’s become a flashpoint in the payments industry, pitting credit card companies against merchants. The former argue they’re providing an essential service and that interchange fees are simply the cost of doing business, while the latter argue that those costs are spiraling out of control.

Lawmakers, too, are paying attention. In 2022, the Credit Card Competition Act was introduced in Congress. It aims to create more competition in the credit card payment network market, which supporters argue would lead to lower interchange costs for merchants. The bill hasn’t passed, but supporters continue to push for it every year.

Why they’re ‘becoming de facto’

So for now, merchants are leaning on surcharges to defray interchange fees, when they can. Some states ban surcharging outright, while others allow it as long as merchants abide by certain rules.

For example, businesses must tell their customers — through written or verbal notices — if they impose a surcharge for credit card payments. And in general, surcharges cannot exceed the limit set by the payment network that the card runs on. (You may have encountered such language on a restaurant bill: “Non-cash adjustments are not greater than our cost of acceptance.”)

It’s a patchwork system that can be hard to follow for both customers and merchants. And on top of that, rewards credit cards are getting even more generous for consumers — and thus more expensive for businesses to accept.

“U.S. cardholders have an insatiable appetite for rewards and benefits,” says John Cabell, managing director of payments intelligence at J.D. Power. “We continue to see an upward spiral for rewards, cash back percentages [and] the number of rewards categories.”

Cabell also believes the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated the surcharging trend. “Since the pandemic, additional fees and charges have become more commonplace,” he says. For instance, some restaurants that remained open during the pandemic tacked on a COVID-related surcharge to make up for the extra costs required to operate safely.

Today, restaurants may be more inclined to surcharge with the recent memory that their patrons were willing to pay extra fees before.

“Surcharging was few and far between … but now it’s becoming de facto,” Apgar says.

What are your options?

‘Do the math’

When faced with a surcharge, you could opt to pay the bill with cash, check or debit card, instead of credit. You won’t be alone. J.D. Power’s 2025 U.S. Merchant Services Satisfaction Study found that “41% of credit card users … decided not to use a card payment method at a large or small business because of a surcharge.”

If you insist on paying with a credit card, try to use one whose rewards outweigh the surcharge. And remember, it’s not always about the percentages. To come out ahead on a restaurant tab with a 3% surcharge, a card that earns 3% cash back on dining would cover you — but so might a card that earns 2 points back per $1 at restaurants, depending on how much those points are worth. For that matter, so might a card with a large welcome bonus that you’re trying to snag.

“You have to do the math to figure out if it’s worth it based on the type of rewards and benefits you’re pursuing,” Cabell says.

Stack rewards

Use a card that earns bonus rewards on dining, then “stack” those savings with a cash-back app or card-linked offer.

Chain restaurants and local eateries alike are often featured in both.

Flag improper charges

If you suspect a restaurant is illegally surcharging, you can dispute the charge by filing a complaint with the card issuer, who will escalate it to the payment network and then the payment processor for that particular merchant.

You could also file a complaint with the Better Business Bureau or your state’s attorney general. To recover a surcharge, you could ask for a refund from the restaurant, or go to small claims court. However, Cabell warns that it could “take a real effort for a very small amount of money.”

Go next door

If you see a sign on the door or menu mentioning a “non-cash service fee” or a “discount for all cash purchases,” you could walk out and take your business elsewhere.

That’s cold comfort to, say, foodies who love trying out the latest trendy spots, surcharges be darned. In that case, it may help to keep in mind that rewards are only one benefit of paying with a credit card. You’ll also get stronger fraud protections, easier budget tracking and opportunities for credit-building. Depending on the card and the purchase, you may also get insurance coverage or extended warranties.

Whether it’s worth paying a surcharge for those benefits is up to you.

Jae Bratton writes for NerdWallet. Email: jbratton@nerdwallet.com.

The article Restaurant Surcharges Are Changing the Math for Credit Card Rewards originally appeared on NerdWallet.

A week after federal agents arrested sellers on Canal Street during an immigration sweep, street vendors teamed up with delivery workers to push for better conditions and more protections in their immigrant-heavy industries.

Delivery workers and street vendors rallying outside City Hall on Oct. 29, 2025. (Gerardo Romo / NYC Council Media Unit)

A week after federal agents arrested sellers on Canal Street during an immigration sweep, street vendors teamed up with delivery workers to push for better conditions and more protections in their immigrant-heavy industries during a rally Wednesday morning.

While the protections that each group is requesting won’t completely shield them from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) arrests, advocates for both groups say city policies—enforced by the NYPD, through the issuance of criminal tickets—have placed delivery workers and street vendors on the immigration enforcement radar.

After ICE Director Todd Lyons said “more arrests” will come to the city, these workers are bracing for what’s to come.

“The moment is now,” said Mohamed Attia, managing director of the Street Vendor Project, during a rally outside City Hall Wednesday. “Because it is our deliveristas and street vendors who are under attack like never before.”

During Wednesday’s rally, advocates and workers in these industries asked the City Council, in its few remaining sessions this year, to pass a series of bills, including legislation that would prohibit app-based delivery services from deactivating workers without cause. 

With deactivation, a worker’s account is permanently terminated. But beyond major policy violations, delivery workers and advocates say there’s no clear definition of what triggers a deactivation, which means losing the ability to work for the app. 

“Please pass those bills,” said Cellou Balde, a delivery worker with the group Los Deliveristas during the rally. “People in New York are often complaining about delivery workers. We are traveling fast. We understand the concern, but often we have no choice. We must take the risk to deliver quick, often on an impossible time frame, to avoid losing our job that we have. Deactivation is a huge problem for our community, because this work is how we survive.” 

Instacart didn’t respond to City Limits’ request for comment on the bill and its deactivation policies. Grubhub says it’s been working with Los Deliveristas Unidos and the City Council to make its process transparent. The company criticized the Council’s bill, saying it would take away its ability to act quickly to enforce their standards, which is essential for public safety.

“As written, Intro 1332 would require platforms to keep drivers active despite serious safety or service issues and could expose sensitive customer information—putting diners, restaurant workers, and other drivers at risk,” a Grubhub spokesperson said in a statement.

Kassandra Perez-Desir, DoorDash’s head of government relations in New York, cited similar safety concerns. “We agree that deactivations should be rare and handled fairly, but this model is a recipe for harm for everyone who depends on a safe platform. The Council should look to proven models that better balance fairness with accountability.”*

Uber said that it supports the main idea of the new law, but not its details as drafted. “The bill must focus on workers who have permanently lost access to delivery apps,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement, a reference to another practice of “lockouts,” which blocks workers from using the apps at certain times.

The Council bill would also address lockouts, using a broad definition of “deactivation” as a permanent or temporary restriction to access the app.

“Since delivery workers are paid for all of their time on the app—not just when a delivery is made—app companies must control costs by limiting the number of people who can work simultaneously, just like every other business. Otherwise, thousands of workers could be online and being paid when there is little or no delivery activity, which would significantly increase consumer costs,” an Uber spokesperson said in a statement.

Another set of bills would reform street vending in the city by expanding licenses, eventually lifting a long-held cap on that number, which workers say has made it hard for them to operate legally (though the Council recently passed legislation—overriding a mayoral veto—that decriminalized vending without a license, something sellers had long called for).

The bills would also create a vendor division within the Department of Small Business Services, make more applications available so that the maximum 445 supervisory licenses are issued every year, and allow vending farther from the curb.

Street vendors near the 7 train Junction Blvd station in Queens in 2024. (Adi Talwar/City Limits)

The push comes after the Adams administration ramped up enforcement in the delivery and vending sectors. During the spring, the NYPD quietly stopped giving civil traffic tickets to cyclists—now issuing criminal tickets instead. In addition, on Oct 24, New York City implemented a 15 mile per hour speed limit for e-bikes, e-scooters, and pedal-assist commercial bicycles.

When the changes were announced, Mayor Eric Adams said the city would take an education-first approach, and enforcement second, issuing warnings to first-time offenders. “To be clear, this isn’t about criminalization; it’s about creating safer, fairer conditions for all New Yorkers,” Adams said.

While the NYPD is giving warnings at the moment, they haven’t said exactly when police will start handing out criminal tickets when asked by City Limits.

Advocates and deliveristas, however, criticized the new speed limit because it would bring more enforcement to the industry, mainly made up of immigrant delivery workers who are already fearful under the Trump administration’s crackdown. They also cast blame on the app companies, saying workers are pressured to make deliveries as quickly as possible.

“[Intro] 1332 is about ensuring deliveristas, 80,000 delivery workers in the city, have just cause protections, making sure that the apps…do not fire and punish deliveristas because they want to drive safe, because they want to prioritize their safety, and because they choose to stay at home in case of an ICE raid,” said Ligia Guallpa, executive director of Workers Justice Project—the non-profit organization that backs Los Deliveristas Unidos—during the rally.

Gabriel Montero, the director of development and communications at the Workers’ Justice Project, said that app companies have deactivated hundreds of workers’ accounts in a month, leaving them on edge and afraid of losing their jobs. 

Councilmember Christopher Marte, who represents the Chinatown area where the recent immigration raid took place, called out fellow council members who have yet to support the bills. 

“In the City Council right now are hypocrites,” Marte said. “They’re really quick to provide a quote, but they still haven’t signed on to these bills that’s been out there for months. When a delivery worker gets hit, gets injured, sometimes, unfortunately, dies, we’re quick to write a statement. We’re quick to have a rally. Well, we’re not quick to have a hearing and a vote that’s actually going to protect our workers.”

Julia Agos, a spokesperson for the City Council, said in a statement that “the additional street vending bills continue to go through the legislative process that is deliberative and allows for thorough public input.”

Food delivery workers, pictured here at a 2022 press conference with City Councilmembers. (John McCarten/NYC Council Media Unit)

‘No attorneys taking new cases’

Both groups are especially at risk of being targeted by ICE during raids since they work on the street. But when these workers are arrested, along with other immigrants in the city, it’s hard to find—or afford—a lawyer who can represent them and fight their case while they’re in detention.

This year, New York City allocated more funds for immigration legal services in its most recent budget passed in June, from $65 million to $120 million in response to the Trump administration’s crackdown.

However, several months after the start of the new fiscal year in July, immigration advocates reported that despite the infusion of funds, it remains very difficult to find full representation from a lawyer.

Some legal providers, like The Bronx Defenders and Brooklyn Defender Services, said that funding shouldn’t be determined in one-year increments, emphasizing the need for sustained support as many immigration cases take years to resolve.

“Despite these investments, the need continues to grow and evolve at the Bronx Defenders, we regularly receive calls from people seeking representation for ICE check-ins, naturalization and other applications for status, non-detained cases, post-conviction, relief or federal representation,” said Rosa Cohen-Cruz, director of immigration policy at the Bronx Defenders, testified at a City Council Immigration Committee hearing earlier this week.

Officials from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs explained that some of the gaps in legal representation also come into account when a detainee is transferred outside the state—a common practice pursued by the Trump administration.

Grassroots organizations that serve immigrant New Yorkers say they’re also overwhelmed by requests for food and guidance. But these organizations do not have the resources to offer legal representation to all of those who seek it. 

“Right now, New York City is failing our immigrant communities when it comes to access to legal services. There are no attorneys taking new cases. The system is completely overwhelmed,” said Adama Bah. CEO and founder of Afrikana.

“Black migrants are being left behind in a system that was never built for them,” Bah added. “They’re being criminalized for seeking safety, and until the city invests in real, accessible, and culturally competent legal services for our communities, this crisis will continue.”

*This story was updated after publication to include comment from DoorDash. To reach the reporter behind this story, contact Daniel@citylimits.org. To reach the editor, contact Jeanmarie@citylimits.org

Want to republish this story? Find City Limits’ reprint policy here.

The post NYC Delivery Workers & Street Vendors Seek Stronger Protections After ICE’s Canal Street Raid appeared first on City Limits.

By HAVEN DALEY and JANIE HAR, Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Police in California are investigating the theft of more than 1,000 items from a museum’s collection including metalwork jewelry, Native American baskets and everyday items like athletic trophies that tell the story of the Golden State.

The Oakland Museum of California is photographed, Thursday, Oct. 30, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)

The burglary occurred in the early morning hours of Oct. 15 at an off-site storage facility of the Oakland Museum of California, Oakland Police said in a news release Wednesday.

Lori Fogarty, the museum’s director, said Thursday the investigation was going public because the artifacts might show up at flea markets, antique stores or pawn shops.

“They’re not just a loss to the museum,” she said. “They’re a loss to the public, to our community and we’re hoping our community can help us bring them home.”

Fogarty said it appeared to be a crime of opportunity, and not a targeted art theft.

“We think the thieves found a way to enter the building, and they grabbed what they could easily find and snatch and get out of the building with,” she said.

Stolen items include neckpieces by the late artist and metalsmith Florence Resnikoff, a pair of scrimshaw walrus tusks and Native American baskets. But she said much of it was historical memorabilia from the 20th century such as campaign pins and athletic awards.

The mission of the Oakland Museum of California is to document the art, history and natural environment of California, and its collection includes works by California artists from the late 18th century to the present, a well as artifacts, photographs, natural specimens and sound recordings. The museum has mounted shows dedicated to the Black Power movement and student activism.

John Romero, a retired Los Angeles Police Department captain who led the department’s commercial crimes unit, told the Los Angeles Times that the items may already have been sold since the burglary occurred two weeks ago. He expects detectives are looking at resale platforms such as Craigslist and Ebay, and networks that specialize in historic or collectible antiques.

“These people are interested in fast cash, not the full appraisal value,” he told the Times. “They need to get rid of it quickly.”

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In January 2013, an Oakland man broke into the museum itself and got away with a California Gold Rush-era jewelry box. Fogarty said the the item was traced to a pawn shop with help from the public, and she hopes the community can help again.

The Oakland Police Department declined to provide further details, but said in its news release that police are working with a unit of the Federal Bureau of Investigation that specializes in art crime, including theft, forgery or antiquities and cultural property trafficking.

The theft occurred four days before thieves made off with priceless Napoleonic jewels from the world’s most-visited museum, the Louvre, in broad daylight. Authorities have made arrests but the jewels have not been recovered.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Oakland police at (510) 238-3951 or submit a tip to the Art Crime Team online or by calling (800) 225-5324.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says drug makers have recalled more than a half-million bottles of the blood pressure medication prazosin hydrochloride over concerns it may include a cancer-causing chemical.

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New Jersey-based Teva Pharmaceuticals USA and drugs distributor Amerisource Health Services issued voluntary nationwide recalls earlier this month of more than 580,000 bottles of various strengths of prazosine capsules, according to the FDA.

Doctors prescribe prazosin, which relaxes blood vessels, to help lower blood pressure. It also is sometimes prescribed for nightmares and other sleep disturbances caused by post-traumatic stress disorder.

The FDA said in enforcement orders posted online that it has given the affected lots of the drug a Class II risk classification because some of the recalled medication may have nitrosamine impurities that are considered potentially cancer causing.

According to the FDA, N-nitrosamine impurities are a class of potentially cancer-causing chemicals that can form during manufacture or storage of a drug.