Is there a minimum transaction value

bobbygrrl

I just went to my local authority leisure centre and there was a sign up saying no card transactions for under £20.00 :eek:

The receptionist said its because "when there is a large queue of people wanting to pay £1.70 on their cards it is a nightmare".

Surely thats not right! I found this on webs wonder "If you intend to accept credit cards you will pay transaction fees to your bank and credit card-processing companies as well as fixed monthly fees. You may end up paying from 2-5% of the sale plus up to 60p for each transaction. (This is why small shops won’t allow payment by card on purchases of less than, say, £5)."

But I'm sure that I read somewhere once that its breaking the banking agreement if a company refuse to accept a payment... I do know that a small local shop to me slaps on 50p surcharge for payment under £5. I think thats okay if they do have to pay but is it even legal? :cool: Bit like charging 50p service charge when someone asks for tap water in a restaurant... I agree with that because the glass still takes up space in the dishwasher and someones time was spent serving it etc. I digress :rolleyes:

I would like to know the facts regarding whether the centre can impose such a stipulation?

sporedude

Yes they can, Many shops/restaurants do this, I was in a Burger King and you could only use a card payment over £5, So its perfectly legal.

Mark_Hewitt

It's not about time really, it's the transaction costs as said. These days with chip+pin, paying by card need not take much longer than paying by cash, quite often it's faster.

Gone are the days of writing out a cheque and verifying the address and taking down the number on the guarantee card which always took **ages**. Which is why you had cash only tills at supermarkets, which you don't see any more.