£5 Minimum Spend on Chip & Pin?

he6rt6gr6m

I remember hearing somewhere that this is a load of tripe, however yet again, yesterday, I walk into a Wetherspoons, and they say there is a minimum spend of £5 if paying by card.

Ive been told this a few times, from Petrol Stations to general stores to Supermarkets.

Is it legitimate? Can you be refused service if you aren't buying over £5, but only have your Bank Card?

Equaliser123

Totally legitimate.

dmg24

Yep, a retailer can impose any minimum amount that they wish to. Our local 'Spoons also stipulates that the £5 must be on food.

fluffnutter

In fact, they can refuse to sell you anything regardless of how you pay for it. Although that wouldn't necessarily be good for business

Hintza

Why not get some cash from the bank?

Darksun

Bear in mind that retailers have to pay for card transactions, so it has to be worth it for them. For debit cards I think it's something like 50p for transaction, so for under a fiver they'll be losing more than 10% in charges. For credit cards it's something like 1.5% of the transaction that they get charged

gordikin

So a pub, general stores, petrol stations and supermarkets have all told you this and you still have doubts?

cardinalbiggles

They have to have it clearly visible at the point of sale.

LeeSouthEast

There is no limit set by the networks. I've paid a 32p bill by chip and pin before now.

However, a retailer can impose a minimum spend, as it 'costs' them to accept a card payment. It can be uneconomical for them to accept payments under a certain amount, hence the policies.

gordikin

cardinalbiggles wrote: »

They have to have it clearly visible at the point of sale.

I'm not doubting you as I can see why it should be...but have you any links to anything 'legal' that says so? Thanks.

xocbc

A sale of under £5, after bank charges and or/processing percentage is likely to result in the retailler making a loss on the sale (perhaps not with food, but could easily do for other items), hence the limit.

Some places do not have limits, I often use my card for a coffee in Costa on the way to work when I realise I only have a few pence cash in my pocket for example, although having ran a business a few years ago and having seen the cut taken by the banks, I don't like using my card for small amounts.

Shops don't have to serve anyone, or accept any form of payment other than those that they want to. I'm not sure that there is any law requiring shops to state a minimum value for a card purchase, only if a card purchase attracts a surcharge to cover bank charges.

Wetherspoons could legitimately set a £20 or £50 minimum for card transactions if they wanted to, similarly they don't have to accept them at all. They could insist on payment in chewing gum wrappers if they really wanted to.