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)
First time I personally experienced a credit/cash price discrepancy was around 2004, but I’m sure it was happening before that, I was just new to that level of economic participation.