Debit card minimum spends.

Beaverman

DCFC79 wrote: »

Go and challenge it then but you wont get served.

Interesting point, it is every shopkeepers right to refuse to serve someone. Just as it is every customers right to take the matter further with their card issuer.

visidigi - Might be a minimum amount of fuel, thats more because of the pump metering i would say, but that applies no matter how you pay. My interest is the minimum value of that fuel, or in the case of a local petrol station who insist on a minimum £7.50 spend, the minimum value of a sandwich and a bottle of water and maybe some mints.

Maybe retailers need to challenge the charges with the card issuers and banks and customers stop using debit cards and pay cash.

Viper_7

Where do you think the money comes from to provide the card network?
Where does the money come from to make the cards?
The processing costs?
the staff?
The fraud prevention?
Of course there is going to be a small charge!

and yes for small purchases that small charge is a large % of the goods, so yes cash is preferred; but now many are going contact less cards where you can use them up to £10 with a PIN and they are immediately authorised without going on-line for auth. This will reduce the costs. IMO though it won't take off.

Yes stick with cash if you like, but will probably cost everyone more with it being washed/lost etc.

somethingcorporate

What difference does it make if it is added on to the transaction as a charge or the items you are purchasing?

Two ways of skinning the cat. In the same way shops can charge different prices for the same item they can apply the charge as they see fit (or not at all).

Seems a bit of a pointless argument really.

DCFC79

And when contactless payments come in or more widespread the customer might have to pay a small fee towards the system. The customer can choose whether to pay the fee or not whereas the shop owner cant refuse to charge the fee as the service to pay by debit cards could be removed which would affect the shops customers.

MamaMoo_2

I spent £15 odd in a corner shop by my dad's house, and was charged £1 for the privilege, or I could pay £1.85 to use their cash machine. I paid the £1, and haven't been back since. There is no way that it was going to cost them £1 to process my Visa debit card.
More fool them, though. I used to spend £20-£40 a week there easily. Now, I just go to the shopping parade a few minutes away.

arcon5

Do you think a 30p newspaper and a £5 magazine transaction should be treated in exactly the same way?

It shouldn't, as the 15pence card charge now removes 100% of the profit from the first transaction and about 5% of the profit for the second transaction.

The minimum spend is for a reason and its not a great comparison to be comparing multi-million pound retailers serving thousands per day suchas supermarkets to a small, local superstore.

Its not about making things consistent, its about each individual business being run in a way that allows them to make a profit. Some incorporate it into the price of the products, some add it at the end. So if they added say 7p to each item as the average customers buys 2 things... what if you bought 5 or 6 items, would you then be asking why you are overpaying?

In many cases the min.spend or charge can be the different between a thriving shop and an empty unit.

With your supermarket example, they would be well within their rights to say you must fill you tank -- and you would be within your rights to say 'no thanks, i'll go elsewhere'.
Its also no different to one art gallery selling work for really cheap relying on volume, and another hiking the price dramatically knowing they only need a few sales.

wealdroam

And Mr Beaverman, have you tried buying a newspaper with a cheque?

Banks charge retailers to bank a cheque too.

With either a card payment or cheque payment, if the retailer wants the money in his bank account, he has to pay a fee.

In either of these scenarios the retailer is encouraging the customer to pay in cash... by charging a fee.

Even if it is against his merchant agreement, and I have no idea whether it is or not, it seems quite reasonable to me.

gordikin

arcon5 wrote: »

If you spend £1000 with me, you can pay in all 5p's if you want

What Services do you offer?

dzug1

Beaverman wrote: »

i have spoken to Visa who advised me that this is against the merchant terms and conditions. .

You have to consider the possibility that this part of the merchant terms and conditions would fall foul of the competition laws should it ever get put to the test.

It already has in the case of credit cards - hence charges for using them are quite legally applied by many merchants.

gordikin

What do ryanair charge for cc/dc transactions...forget the cornershop?