tesco wouldn't accept my switch for 93p!

pulliptears

I bought a 34p bar of chocolate the other morning. Reason being I was getting petrol and when I put my card in the pay at pump it said "Card Invalid", I wanted to make sure it was tesco's glitch and not my bank before I put fuel in so the cashier advised I bought a bar of chocolate!

taxiphil

Astaroth wrote:

Accepting a debit card costs 30p per transaction irrespective of the amount of the transaction (which is why companies do cashback on debit cards)

Cannot comment on what Tescos policy is but given that their profit margins on most things is about 10% then a transaction for £1.00 paid by switch would have cost them £1.20 and so a 20p loss

But this is mitigated by all the people who pay by card for a big weekly shop. They work out what the average transaction comes to, then use this figure to build the card fees into the cost of the goods, just like the cost of carrier bags or electricity or any other overhead.

Astaroth

woohoo_postingid wrote:

Maybe for an independent business...
I would imagine that the charges for Tesco are nowhere near that amount - probably more like 5p or even 1p per transaction.

The actual figure for debit card fees are no way near that negotiable though I agree that they will probably be slightly less than the 30p a normal SME with full merchant account would have to pay. In the one company I have worked where I had close dealings with Finance I know we had been unsuccessful in negotiating down from the standard 30p even though we were putting billions through debit card payments - though our credit card charge rate was tiny

surfcat

achtunglady wrote:

I'd call up head office and ask their policy on it, and if they say yes they do accept debit cards for under £1, then tell them that a rude cashier refused to serve you, and tell them that you had to spend your bus fare and walk home in the pouring rain and also the cash machine was out of order. If you still have your receipt, give them the details on it.

As for her snotty attitude that it cost tesco that amount in charges to use it, was she personally paying the charge out of her pocket????

What is this crap? I mean, gosh, a sales assistant with a mind of their own who dares not kow-tow to a customers whinging. If the O.P was so concerned about getting wet she should have left the strore and used the bus fare for the bus!

achtunglady

surfcat wrote:

What is this crap? I mean, gosh, a sales assistant with a mind of their own who dares not kow-tow to a customers whinging. If the O.P was so concerned about getting wet she should have left the strore and used the bus fare for the bus!

You werent the sales assistant who served her were you??????

pawprinter

Gee you were only 7p off the 'min spend', so she shouldn't have been so particular about it.

Then again, I would have just bought something small to make it up to a pound...like a onion or something...and then give it to the cashier as a gift.

Better than walking across town in the rain!

RAMBLER

I've heard of some picky stores doing this, yet I've put 8p onto a card before.
I guess you just have to accept it???

Crabman

Does it cost more for a credit card transaction than a debit card transaction??

Kilty_2

Credit Card transactions are charged as a %age whereas Debit Cards are a fixed rate.

As for the Tesco thing, their Self Service will allow me to charge £0.01 to my debit card so see no reason why it should be refused at a checkout (and would point that out to staff in the event of it being so)

Tesco make so much money the cost of processing cards is absolutely nothing to them in real terms.

dangeroussports

You should of brought an umbrella too. No point in walking through a rain cloud with a wet newspaper!