Maybe my memory is faulty, but I never remembered having to pay a surcharge to use a credit card. Now everywhere I go there are signs saying that there is a 2.5-3.5% surcharge to use a car (and others that say that there’s a 2.5-3.5% discount for using cash, I assume to get around wording)
A big part of it was the rise of credit card perks like cash back, supported by higher credit card fees. I gotta admit, why should the vendor be paying for our cash back?