MSE News: Government to ban debit and credit card surcharges

callum9999

2sides2everystory wrote: »

Forgive me but that's a somewhat dense assertion, callum. What's the difference between "shops", airlines and banks in the matter? Does your assertion extrapolate to banks too? I.e. are banks allowed to charge excessively if they want to? Sorry - no they can't.

Well a bank isn't really a shop is it... Yes they can charge excessively - there are only a few areas where the government have intervened to stop them. They could all turn around and start charging £50 a month for their current accounts if they felt like it. You'll also notice most won't give you a penny in interest.

And obviously shops and airlines can charge excessively. Budget airlines (and some big ones) charge excessively for card payments, food on the plane, check-in etc. Then they can set the cost of their fares to whatever they want.

Likewise with shops. Waitrose is pretty pricey in comparison to ASDA - they are free to charge whatever they like.

It's a free world...

.1xp

pqrdef wrote: »

Well its pretty obvious that Ryanair can't really fly anybody to Malaga for 23p and they are going to have to get a lot more money out of people one way or another. What they actually call their charges is neither here nor there. If they don't call them one thing, they'll call them something else.

It's just like the free gift with £9.95 p&p trick. Limit them to honest p&p and there's no free gift.

Anybody who thinks anybody will get anything cheaper as a result of this change is away with the fairies.

Once again, the useless British consumer watchdog industry opens its mouth and puts its foot in it.

But it will make prices much more transparent, which will then in turn allow people to shop around easier to find the best overall deal without having the added charge for paying added at the end.

I've always felt it was stupid to be charged to pay .... it should be built in to the overall cost and then everyone can make their own mind up.

I think that this in turn will then make all retailers look at their prices so the consumer will be better off

JimmyTheWig

pqrdef wrote: »

Anybody who thinks anybody will get anything cheaper as a result of this change is away with the fairies.

I think things might get cheaper overall.
For those who are able and willing to jump through the current hoops things will become more expensive, but in general this should make prices simpler which should make shopping around easier which will increase competition which should bring prices down.

giddypenguin

I think the key is this "Ryanair charges £6 per person, per flight to pay if you do not hold its own prepaid Mastercard, though the airline claims this is not a surcharge."

They (Ryanair and all other companies) will just call it something else - Until they ban this 'drip-feed fees' practice that so many companies do now (ie, you can see exactly what something is going to cost before you start the booking/ordering process) this will continue.

rinabean

I don't mind being charged to pay for things when it's the real price. My veg box supplier has a charge per card payment, and I know it's what it costs them because I've seen the same figures when looking up these things myself. I don't think it should be built in to the price - I'd rather pay less than have it hidden from me and subsidise everyone else. But it should really be the cost of processing the payment, not something ridiculous like £6.

chattychappy

The government should stop interfering. I'm capable of making my own mind up.

As for "what it costs to process a transaction" - the real cost to a retailer can be higher than the mere 2%/3% charge or whatever. Consumers often dispute transactions on spurious grounds and the CCs, not wanting to get involved, simply chargeback the retailer. If you're willing to pay cash (or an equivalent) why should you be forced to subsidise all this nonsense just because the real cost can't be passed on.

Let retailers surcharge whatever the market will bear, I say.

zagfles

pqrdef wrote: »

Well its pretty obvious that Ryanair can't really fly anybody to Malaga for 23p and they are going to have to get a lot more money out of people one way or another. What they actually call their charges is neither here nor there. If they don't call them one thing, they'll call them something else.

It's just like the free gift with £9.95 p&p trick. Limit them to honest p&p and there's no free gift.

Anybody who thinks anybody will get anything cheaper as a result of this change is away with the fairies.

Once again, the useless British consumer watchdog industry opens its mouth and puts its foot in it.

Erm, nobody is claiming this will result in things getting cheaper. The whole point is to make pricing transparent, so you know exactly what you're going to have to pay before you get to the final stages of payment.

zagfles

chattychappy wrote: »

The government should stop interfering. I'm capable of making my own mind up.

As for "what it costs to process a transaction" - the real cost to a retailer can be higher than the mere 2%/3% charge or whatever. Consumers often dispute transactions on spurious grounds and the CCs, not wanting to get involved, simply chargeback the retailer. If you're willing to pay cash (or an equivalent) why should you be forced to subsidise all this nonsense just because the real cost can't be passed on.

Let retailers surcharge whatever the market will bear, I say.

What about a surcharge for cash? Cash costs the retailer too, in bank charges for paying in, in security/insurance costs. Many retailers prefer cards these days.

stclair

Retailers will just think of other ways to impose the charges....

Noisy_Parkser

Here, in my view, is a great example of these extortionate charges: I booked a skiing holiday for four adults and a seven month old infant through Crystal, paid up the deposit and then contacted BA to book the seats as I wanted to make sure we had space to cope with an infant on a nine hour journey. BA couldn't book the seats at that stage because the booking didn't show up on their system until we had paid in full to Crystal. Went back to Crystal and paid up in full TEN WEEKS EARLY - unfortunately, my bank account didn't have enough balance at that stage so I had to use a credit card to pay up the balance. For this privilege they charged me £98.58 which seems very unfair and excessive. As soon as I could I transferred funds and so paid no fee to the credit card company, but had to pay this big fee to Crystal basically for them doing nothing, but for me to secure our seating with BA and to be able to cope with the baby (which would hopefully also improve the flight experience for the other passengers!) It is about time these charges were abolished!