Should we get a discount?

Al_Mac

More and more companies either charge a fee directly or in-directly for using a credit card:mad:

Should we be offered a discount for not using a credit card?

Astaroth

Surely it should be the other way around with credit card users being charged a fee and non-card users getting it at ticket price? (as is already done by some industries like travel agents)

If we take it a step further you can then see that store cards/ store branded credit cards will become more popular again as card fee would undoubtably be waived if you use their card - eg Thomas Cook dont charge the normal 2% credit card fee if you use a Thomas Cook credit card to pay.

Queenie

Al_Mac wrote:

...

Should we be offered a discount for not using a credit card?

My mother would always ask: "Do you give discount for cash?" (ok, those were the day of HP, which she wouldn't touch with a barge pole! Plus, debt was a shameful thing to her) Sometimes she did, sometimes she didn't but her philosophy was, "no harm in asking, the worst that can happen is they say, 'no'!"


No reason why we, as individuals, can't do the same today Actually, I've tried it a couple of times in recent years and ... one said, 'no' , the other, turned into a wonderful opportunity to haggle :money:

nomoneytoday

Cash and cheques cost money for the company to process too...
Securicor, bank charges etc also have to paid for..

lisyloo

The previous poster is right.
Cash is also risky (you can be robbed).
This is why supermarkets like giving cashback.

The_Boss

Exactly. No discounts should be given.

grumbler

However, it is a well-known fact that credit cards are more expensive to accept (than cash or debit cards), so a surchage for paying by a credit card could be very reasonable IMHO.

The_Boss

But as people have said - what about collection of the money by Securicor and taking it to a bank etc etc? Plus the possiblity of money going missing or being stolen.

lisyloo

However, it is a well-known fact that credit cards are more expensive to accept

Is it?
Please can you provide a link or a source for this fact?
Did it take account of all the costs e.g. burgaries, bounced cheques, admin time for paying in the cash/cheques, loss of interest whilst waiting for cash to be paid in etc.

I would be very interested to see the source of this FACT and to see what measurements it's based on.

grumbler

lisyloo wrote:

Please can you provide a link or a source for this fact?

I'll try to find something. Can you explain why Aldi and some other shops accept all debit cards, but don't accept credit cards? Cash is a legal tender, all shops must accept it.

bounced cheques, admin time for paying in ... cheques, loss of interest whilst waiting for cash to be paid in etc

In my post I compared only debit and credit cards. Card transactions are not instant too and take a few days to be completed.

P.S. See some (not very reliable though) information in this thread: £1.50 surcharge to use a DEBIT card?????

lisyloo

Can you explain why Aldi and some other shops accept all debit cards, but don't accept credit cards?

I would GUESS that it's because on the face of it that they THINK that debit cards are cheaper.
However I would not claim that to be a fact.

Whether they have fully taken into account the benefits they get e.g. extra custom, I don't know.
It's very difficult to quantify the custom they lose by not taking credit cards, so I would say it's hard to prove absolutely one way or the other.

It's also possible that Aldi are wrong and their policy is costing them big time in terms of lost custom.

But I couldn't say for definite.