Heather Bernhardt is a small business owner. But she has a rant as a business owner and a customer.

She can't stand the growing practice of businesses charging consumers a surcharge to use their credit card.

"Let me tell you, if you own a small store, you own a store, whatever, restaurant, and you charge me a surcharge for using a credit card, I'm not coming back," Bernhardt said in a Tiktok post. "Eat it. It's good customer service."

Bernhardt's ire about credit card surcharges is not unique.

In two separate national surveys of consumers, shoppers have said they are sick of being nickel-and-dimed to pay a surcharge that used to be a cost of doing business.

The practice of charging consumers a surcharge on transactions is allowed based on a 2012 settlement between credit card networks and a group of U.S. merchants, according to an article by Wallethub. The surcharges, can range from 1.5% to 3%.

The practice of passing along credit card transaction fees to consumers by adding a surcharge to their bill began showing up during the COVID-19 pandemic, when more consumers were moving to e-commerce and in-person businesses and restaurants were dealing with higher costs, said John Kiernan, WalletHub editor.

However, the 2012 settlement only covered credit card transactions and not debit cards or pre-paid gift cards. Visa and Mastercard rules prohibit transaction fees for debit card transactions, but enforcement is pretty lax since that is not widely known, especially among smaller businesses and consumers, Kiernan told USA TODAY. For credit card transaction fees, the consumer is supposed to be notified in some manner before the transaction takes place. If not, the consumer can file a dispute with the credit card issuer, Kiernan said.

Additionally, some states, such as Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts, have state laws that prohibit credit card surcharges for consumers, Kiernan said.

The credit card surcharge fee usage is widespread in practice and also causes widespread annoyance.

In a recent study by WalletHub, 87% of people said "they are being nickel-and-dimed when they are asked to pay an extra fee for credit card payment processing." More than 4 in 5 Americans said they were charged a fee for paying with a credit card and 2 in 3 consumers said they would not use their credit card if they were charged a fee.

More than 3 in 5 people also said they thought it was unfair for merchants to pass their payment processing fees on to their customers.