Credit card processing restaurants are increasingly common as more and more people use credit cards to pay their bill. The few exceptions are usually smaller restaurants or street vendors that only deal in cash and usually deal with vastly smaller bills per customer. These smaller operations may not have the facilities to work with credit cards and may not want to deal with financial institutions to set up credit card processing facilities. Therefore it is much more financially viable for them only to deal with cash, even if they lose a few customers who do not carry cash on their person.



Having credit card facilities is expected of any middle to high class restaurant, particularly if they have eat-in facilities. Most major credit cards are accepted internationally but extra charges may apply if you use your credit card in a different country. Sometimes these fees can be avoided if you choose the right institution and the right account.



Many restaurants refuse to split bills and pay for percentages of bills with different credit cards. The reasons for this is not only that it is time consuming for the restaurant and occupies what is usually a solitary credit card processing machine but also that most restaurants will pay a small fee for every credit card transaction that they make. This is also a major cause for several restaurants and bars having a minimum transaction for all debit and credit card transactions.

Some restaurants have a small surcharge for the use of credit cards to pay for bills; this is usually to cover costs the restaurant itself incurs for using the credit card facilities along with subsidizing for the extra time that needs to be taken by staff to process the credit cards. As there is no change to be given from a credit card transaction tips and service charges need to be added to the bill before the transaction itself is carried out. In some countries tips are not expected and if a customer wishes to add a tip while paying with a credit card they must be very clear they wish to do so and be careful to add the desired amount onto to the bill before they pay.