said by consumerismcommentary.com / CIRCA 2007 :

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I thought it was against the terms of service of a merchant account—and possibly against the law—to charge different prices for cash and credit or to add a surcharge for credit card purchases, all else being equal. Here’s how the stations apparently get around this issue:

Now we all face dual pricing, and as was the case when the practice first popped up, to comply with the law, the pump price has to be the credit price from which the cash discount comes.

But the price advertised on the big signs that draw people to the stations is the cash price. That is misleading.

According to North Jersey Media Group, gas stations are “forced” to adopt this policy because merchant fees eat into their profits..

.. it’s clear that when this was initiated at the stations within the last few days, the cash price is the one that followed the trending line and an extra surcharge was added to the credit card prices. Nevertheless, they can still consider it a “discount” for cash purchases. The regular credit card price should be the one advertised on the large signs, not the discounted price.

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