MSE News: Credit and debit card fee clampdown begins

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  • roddydogs
    roddydogs Posts: 7,478 Forumite
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    So what is "Excessive"? Holiday companies charge 2% or more if you pay by CC, what will it be now?
  • Roger1
    Roger1 Posts: 1,603 Forumite
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    I wonder if anybody has told the Government about the new rules in effect from today. :D

    I've just renewed my car tax online. DVLA wanted to surcharge a credit card payment by 25%. :rotfl: OK, it was a fixed fee of £2.50 for tax of £10.00, but 2% (or whatever) would have been 20p. So why 25%?

    Anyway, I paid by debit card without an added fee.
  • eco717
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    Cinemas could move the transaction fee to the ticket price
    BUT
    the film company gets about 50% of the net ticket price
    PRS gets about 1% of the net ticket price

    so to make up for the loss of a £1.50 fee the cinema would have to charge an extra £3.06 on the ticket price.

    much the same in theatres but often they only retain maybe 15% of the ticket price so you would be looking at a £10 increase in the ticket price for them to maintain their revenue.

    Be careful what you ask for....
  • Gromitt
    Gromitt Posts: 5,063 Forumite
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    upton66 wrote: »
    I would say 2% max charge for a credit card is a rip off. High street retailers do not charge extra so why should on line transactions incur the charge?

    Big chain stores don't charge because they are making ridiculous profits anyway, so they can afford to. Plus they are probably making sufficient transactions to get the fees down to 1% or less. If you order online, no additional charges are usually made. In fact, for some stores, online prices are cheaper than the high street price.

    Smaller stores I can understand charging 2.5% as this is what they'll be charged by their payment processor (plus probably a monthly fee).

    Our local news agent charged 50p for paying with a debit card or £2.50 for paying with a credit card. I think the later was a little high, this morning I see a new sign has been erected - "Please note, we do not take credit cards, only debit cards".
  • LSINSHIRLEY
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    I am buying a car on thursday with a 0% credit card.

    I am spending £6344 and being charged 2% = £126.88

    Is 2% a fair amount - I have read most companies get charged 1.9% and from what I have read think I should be charged the 1.9% saving a whopping £6.34.

    What do others think?

    (I was charge 3% in 2008 - suspect I will have to let that one go).

    LS
  • Hominu
    Hominu Posts: 1,671 Forumite
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    Roger1 wrote: »
    I wonder if anybody has told the Government about the new rules in effect from today. :D

    I've just renewed my car tax online. DVLA wanted to surcharge a credit card payment by 25%. :rotfl: OK, it was a fixed fee of £2.50 for tax of £10.00, but 2% (or whatever) would have been 20p. So why 25%?

    I wonder if I wait until next week to renew my car tax then the credit card payment surcharge of £2.50 will change?

    Perhaps they'll remove it as a payment option like the post office?
  • lemontart
    lemontart Posts: 6,037 Forumite
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    these charges have always annoyed me especially when made by an online organization that you have no other way of paying other by card in which case imho it should be factored into their prices.
    I am responsible me, myself and I alone I am not the keeper others thoughts and words.
  • ColinB
    ColinB Posts: 70 Forumite
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    edited 7 April 2013 at 11:55AM
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    If the new rules are that retailers can charge the actual cost of the transaction, I don't quite understand why the cost of a transaction should be a percentage of the value. Surely a transaction will cost £X irrespective of the value, ie the cost of processing an electronic transaction by credit card for £10 ought to be the same as one for £5000 ?

    I think the DVLA example for renewing car tax looks like good practice here. I have two cars one with £20 tax and the other with (sob) £195 tax. DVLA charge a flat rate of £2.50 which I assume to be their assessment of the cost of processing that transaction (whether that's reasonable or not is another matter). But for the cheaper car that's a whopping 12.5%, and for the expensive one it's 1.3%. So charging on a percentage basis really would be a rip-off for more expensive purchases, because the cost of the transaction must be the same in both cases.

    LSINSHIRLEY: If you are about to be charged £126.88 as the "actual reasonable cost" of your car purchase transaction, I suggest you have very good grounds to challenge that because that's exactly the sort of profiteering the new rules are intended to prevent ! How can the garage justify that sort of charge if (eg) DVLA are quite happy to charge £2.50 per transaction irrespective of the value ?
  • reclusive46
    reclusive46 Posts: 2,698 Forumite
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    ColinB wrote: »
    If the new rules are that retailers can charge the actual cost of the transaction, I don't quite understand why the cost of a transaction should be a percentage of the value. Surely a transaction will cost £X irrespective of the value, ie the cost of processing an electronic transaction by credit card for £10 ought to be the same as one for £5000 ?

    I think the DVLA example for renewing car tax looks like good practice here. I have two cars one with £20 tax and the other with (sob) £195 tax. DVLA charge a flat rate of £2.50 which I assume to be their assessment of the cost of processing that transaction (whether that's reasonable or not is another matter). But for the cheaper car that's a whopping 12.5%, and for the expensive one it's 1.3%. So charging on a percentage basis really would be a rip-off for more expensive purchases, because the cost of the transaction must be the same in both cases.

    LSINSHIRLEY: If you are about to be charged £126.88 as the "actual reasonable cost" of your car purchase transaction, I suggest you have very good grounds to challenge that because that's exactly the sort of profiteering the new rules are intended to prevent ! How can the garage justify that sort of charge if (eg) DVLA are quite happy to charge £2.50 per transaction irrespective of the value ?

    A merchant is charged a set processing fee for debit cards but charged a percentage for processing credit cards. So the processing fee gets higher on a higher transaction.
  • Tamlync
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    Went to book some flights today,

    Flying out on Thomas Cook and flying back on Ryanair due to dates required and costs work out cheaper that way.


    Thomascook wanted £16 credit card charge for 4 people booking, whilst Ryanair only wanted £6 charge.

    Called Thomascook to point out this is now not allowed, spoke to an agent who spoke to their manager about it ... Response.. That rule doesn't apply to us.


    Thoughts?
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