8 Charges Pennsylvanians End Up Regretting Putting on Their Credit Cards
If you’re not careful, some charges on your credit card bill end up being higher than the amount shown on your receipt at checkout.
Way more.
These are the credit card charges that sounded like a good idea at the time, but many Pennsylvanians end up regretting.
Note: This is general information, not financial or legal advice. Card fees and tax costs are subject to change, so confirm the current details with the card issuer or the Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office.
1. Taking a Cash Advance at an ATM
A credit card treats an automated teller machine (ATM) withdrawal nothing like a debit card does.
Interest starts the moment the machine hands over the cash, with none of the grace period a regular purchase gets.
Nearly every issuer adds a cash advance fee on top of that, either a flat $10 or 5% of the amount, whichever costs more.
Pull $200 from a Pennsylvania ATM with a credit card, and that fee alone runs $10 before a cent of interest kicks in.
At a cash advance annual percentage rate (APR) that often runs in the high 20s to 30%, a $200 withdrawal left unpaid for a few months can end up costing far more than the $200 ever did.
2. Funding a Sports Bet With Your Card
Fund a sports bet with a credit card in Pennsylvania, and the card issuer counts the deposit as a cash advance, not an ordinary purchase.
That distinction is expensive.
Fund a $20 bet with a credit card, and the fee alone can run $10, on top of whatever the bet itself costs.
The Senate Banking Committee found that same math showing up nationwide after sportsbooks logged card deposits as cash advances instead of ordinary purchases.
DraftKings banned credit card deposits nationwide, including in Pennsylvania, back in August 2024.
FanDuel followed with the same nationwide change starting March 2, 2026.
Caesars, BetMGM, and bet365 still take the card in Pennsylvania.
The coding on those sportsbooks hasn’t changed.
3. Buying Cryptocurrency on a Credit Card
A credit card treats a cryptocurrency purchase like a gamble, not a normal buy, and prices it that way.
Many issuers decline the purchase outright, since card networks worry about fraud and chargebacks on crypto.
Others code it as a cash advance instead, the same treatment as an ATM withdrawal.
American Express, for one, charges a flat $10 or 5% of the amount, whichever is greater, on a crypto purchase run through the card as a cash advance.
Buy $500 in crypto that way, and the fee alone can run $25, before the cash advance interest even starts.
Crypto prices can still move.
4. Sending Venmo or PayPal Payments by Card
A credit card linked to Venmo or PayPal charges twice for the same favor.
Venmo takes its own cut first.
Venmo charges 3% to send money with a linked credit card, taken right off the top.
Send a friend $200 for concert tickets that way, and $6 goes to Venmo before the money even lands.
Venmo’s own help center confirms that a linked credit card issuer may add its own cash advance fee on top of that, the same treatment as an ATM withdrawal.
PayPal likely codes a linked-card transfer the same way, though PayPal’s own fee pages don’t spell out the details as plainly as Venmo’s do.
That’s two fees, not one.
Psst! How many of these charges have you put on your card without thinking twice? Run through this checklist and see where you land.
Self-Check
How Many of These Charges Have You Made?
Check off every one that sounds familiar, then see what your total says about your card habits.
This checklist is for reflection only, not financial advice.
5. Paying a Landlord’s Card Surcharge
Pennsylvania has no state law banning a credit card surcharge, so a landlord or contractor can legally tack one on.
Card network rules cap that add-on at 4% of the bill, with Visa holding its own merchants to 3%.
Charge $1,500 in rent to a card with a surcharge attached, and that’s up to $60 tacked on before the rent itself is paid.
The merchant has to post the surcharge and spell out the dollar amount on the receipt, not bury it.
Merchants rarely make it obvious.
Pennsylvania lawmakers introduced House Bill 1780 in August 2025 to make that disclosure a legal requirement and cap surcharges at the merchant’s actual processing cost.
The bill was still in committee as of this writing.
6. Charging Your Pennsylvania Tax Bill
A Pennsylvania tax bill charged to a credit card runs through a processor first, and that processor isn’t free.
The state’s processor (ACI Payments) adds a 2.85% convenience fee to every credit card payment, with a $1 minimum.
Owe $3,000 in Pennsylvania income tax and pay it by card, and the fee alone comes to about $85.50.
The rewards don’t cover that.
7. Trusting a Store Card’s Interest-Free Deal
A store card’s “no interest for 12 months” offer on a Pennsylvania furniture or mattress purchase isn’t interest-free at all.
It’s deferred, not forgiven.
Miss that deadline with even a small balance left, and interest comes due retroactively, back to the day of purchase.
The store-card APR now averages 30.14%, per Bankrate’s 2025 survey of retail credit cards.
Buy a $2,000 sofa on one of those deals, leave $150 unpaid when the promotion ends, and the retroactive interest can land closer to $500 than $150.
Few shoppers see it coming.
8. Financing a Repair With Minimum Payments
A credit card can turn a one-time repair bill into a multi-year debt, once the minimum payment takes over.
A Pennsylvania furnace replacement can run $5,000 to $13,000 installed, per one Philadelphia-area contractor, and many homeowners put the whole repair on a card during a cold snap.
At the average card rate of 22.15%, a $6,000 balance paid at the card’s minimum can take years to clear.
Carry that balance at only the minimum payment, and the math stretches into years, with total interest easily passing what the repair cost in the first place.
You pay for it twice.
What Paying by Debit Gives Up
A credit card charge and the same purchase run through a debit card don’t carry the same protections in Pennsylvania or anywhere else.
They’re not the same.
A credit card charge falls under federal billing-dispute rules, which let a cardholder challenge it and hold back payment while the issuer investigates.
A debit card charge pulls straight from a checking account, under a different set of federal rules with more exposure for the cardholder.
The Chargeback Gap Between Debit and Credit
A credit card charge in Pennsylvania carries federal backup under the Fair Credit Billing Act, capped at $50 for an unauthorized charge.
That same law lets a cardholder withhold payment on a damaged or undelivered purchase over $5, made in-state or within 100 miles of home.
A debit card charge follows Regulation E instead, and the clock works against the cardholder.
Report a lost or stolen card within two business days, and the loss caps at $50.
Wait past that, and the cap rises to $500, then runs unlimited once 60 days pass without a report.
A credit card charge on a big Pennsylvania purchase carries a $50 ceiling no matter what, and the same purchase on a debit card doesn’t.
Where the Gap Hits Hardest
A credit card’s protection matters more as the purchase gets bigger.
A landlord asking for first month, last month, and a security deposit upfront is exactly the kind of purchase this protection was built for.
That’s serious exposure.
The same logic covers an online purchase from a seller nobody’s used before, where the product might not show up at all.
The Fair Credit Billing Act gives a cardholder 60 days from the statement date to file a written dispute.
The issuer has to investigate before the balance comes due.
A $2,700 security deposit charged to a credit card keeps that 60-day window open long after move-in day, and a debit card charge for the same deposit carries no matching guarantee.
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