Debit card minimum spends.

Jakg

MisterBrico wrote: »

I thought companies did pay very small fees for debit card transactions

I know a lot of places don't accept AMEX because of higher handling fees.

Debit cards play a flat fee (i.e £0.xx per transaction, irrespective of size).

Credit cards work on a percentage (i.e. x.x% of the total amount).

On a 80p paper the credit card fee will be virtually nothing - but on a debit card it could well make the retailer a loss.

Beaverman wrote: »

Im curious to know more about it as im tired of being told i have to spend xx amount in a store to use a debit card. I understand that retailers have costs to cover, but thats the cost of doing business. Why should I as a customer have to cover their card costs? This should be accounted for in the product markup (I promise you that Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys, etc do this!)

On an item of any significant value I agree - but what about really low value goods?

Many small shops sell low value items (i.e. a Freddo bar for 15p) - do you think they should mark *all* items up to a price where they wont lose money if they sell the item on it's own (i.e. that Freddo bar to 65p...)

Beaverman

somethingcorporate wrote: »

But they are party to the contract of you buying from them.

They can charge £1 extra for people wearing jeans, hardly a dispute with the jeans company!

I think only the consumer will suffer if they are not allowed to charge a transaction charge for accepting cards. Seems a bit of a worthless crusade.

Then as part of that contract surely the retailers agreement with the card company is relevant, i.e, they have to accept a card no matter the cost of the sale?

Lets use your jeans argument for a second, what if such a system were in place? Would you shop somewhere that did it but was not allowed to do it? Maybe many people would do, seems many people these days are happy to go along and not question things, but i have never been a follower. I question things and there is no right or wrong in that, but some people think im trying to be clever or funny when i do it. Its not a crusade, well, unless you call knowledge a crusade . Some people dont like being asked questions, like MPs and expenses, or Police forces about corruption or newspapers about phone hacking, or banks on bank charges (Ok so that was not a win for the consumer, but it raised awareness of it and many banks now put thier charges into the realms of reality), so should we stop asking questions?

If, as has already been mentioned, these charges will be outlawed soon then im not the only one who thinks this way.

Small retailers will be affected by this im sure, and despite my views on card fees, I support most small retailers, if it were an option for me i would rather buy from them over large supermarkets (We all know they are dishonest, look at Tesco who today are fighting a fine for price fixing on milk along with ALL the other large supermarkets).

No matter peoples views, its been interesting to read them. :beer: