Minimum spend on debit card & non bank cash machine charges.

jamespir

i often like to use my card to get stuff from the local shop but they are now charging 175 to use your card as well as charging that for the atm

fluffnutter

sekrapa wrote: »

We have had a minimum £5 via card for many years. We have to pay rental on the card terminal, pay for rolls to go inside, pay a fee for taking the card, pay the bank for the privilege of them paying our money into our account, then pay them again we we take it out.

All in all, if the transaction is under £5, its not worth taking by card. 99% of our customers will just add other items to make it up to £5.

If we were to take transactions under £5, our average total for sales would drop and our card transaction costs would increase. To get a lower % fee, the average transaction value needs to be as high as possible. A debit card fee is usually fixed and a credit card fee is a % of the total sale.

Put your prices up slightly and do away with the fees.

That's just my opinion though because I don't like add-ons but won't notice (or mind) if the overall price is a little higher. Take for example being charged 10p for a sachet of something in the chippy. I appreciate that these cost money, I get that the business doesn't want to make a loss by giving things away for free, but why not just stick 5p on the price of a bit of fish? You'll be making more money in the long run because I doubt 50% of customers are buying a tommy K sachet. No one will notice the extra 5p on the fish, but they will be happy that they're getting a sachet for 'free'.

fluffnutter

jamespir wrote: »

i often like to use my card to get stuff from the local shop but they are now charging 175 to use your card as well as charging that for the atm

Which is just opportunism. A debit card transaction costs about 20p so most of this £1.75 is clear profit for the retailer. I'll pay a reasonable charge, but that's too high IMO.

Azari

fluffnutter wrote: »

Put your prices up slightly and do away with the fees.

That's just my opinion though because I don't like add-ons but won't notice (or mind) if the overall price is a little higher. Take for example being charged 10p for a sachet of something in the chippy. I appreciate that these cost money, I get that the business doesn't want to make a loss by giving things away for free, but why not just stick 5p on the price of a bit of fish? You'll be making more money in the long run because I doubt 50% of customers are buying a tommy K sachet. No one will notice the extra 5p on the fish, but they will be happy that they're getting a sachet for 'free'.

I have to disagree with your here.

I must admit I thought the same when places started charging for things like condiments, (and card fees), but then I realised that if they didn't charge for these things then those who didn't use them would be subsidising those who did.

Looking at the way that some people take handfuls of anything going free I wouldn't really want to feel I was paying for that stuff.

It's very nice going to a hotel with 'free' gym, 'free' pool, and 'free' sauna, but if you just want a room for the night you are paying for all those facilities on top of the cost of the only thing you want: th room.

fluffnutter

Azari wrote: »

I must admit I thought the same when places started charging for things like condiments, (and card fees), but then I realised that if they didn't charge for these things then those who didn't use them would be subsidising those who did.

It does boil down to whether you're happy to subsidise this use or not, I agree. Personally I am. Your view is equally valid.

TristanWhite

I am very angry at a shop the other night, Rosebery Wines, who told me there was a minimum spend of £10 (excluding cigarettes). So I bought loads of things I didn't need. When he added it up it came to just under £10, I asked him whether that was OK or whether I needed to buy anything else, he said he'd let me off, I paid, asked for the receipt (which he didn't automatically give me) and I saw that the £0.80 surcharge had been added. When I asked him about it he refused to budge and said that I was lucky he served me at all because his license didn't allow him to serve customers after midnight (it was 00:05). I said that's not the point, this was a matter of principle, I'd now bought a load of overpriced rubbish in the shop to avoid the surcharge. I went back next day and asked him for an apology at least, he refused, got on the defensive and got extremely aggressive. I had been going to that shop for 10 years and I told him that not only will he lose a customer but I will also put a bad review on the Internet. He told me to !!!! off and a friend in there told me that no one will read my review. Well, it's on QYPE if anyone wants to find it (as a new user on this forum I cannot post links).

George_Michael

When I asked him about it he refused to budge and said that I was lucky he served me at all because his license didn't allow him to serve customers after midnight (it was 00:05)

Does your receipt have the time stamped on it?
If so, next time you are passing, pop into the store and tell the manager that you are passing your complaint on to your local trading standards and they might well be interested as to why the shop was still trading outside of their trading licence hours.

I realise that TS probably won't give a toss about it, but it might cause the shop owner a couple of sleepless nights.

michaelvintner

fluffnutter wrote: »

My friend was forever running out of loo roll. One memorable time I had to use the previous day's newspaper. Whilst on the loo, I flicked through said paper looking for a suitable page and finally settled on a big close-up of Esther Rantzen's face.

How can you run out of bog paper. I can do without Milk, Sugar, Tea, Coffee or in fact any food at all in the house and it would not even bother me.

I freak out when I am down to my last 3 bog rolls and go and purchase more.

Soap as well how anyone could run out of that is beyond belief. I must have enough in the house to last for a couple of months.

To answer the original post. I never use the cash machines that charge you to take your money out and when the shop has a minimum spend policy and I have no cash I would just buy enough to take me over that price.

mrs_sparrow

Surely there are 'essentials' for sale that you can buy to top up the spend.

I can see why they do it as they get charged per transaction and people will be buying a mars bar on their credit card.

Thing is, if you then go and drive elsewhere to buy your prescription/bog rolls, surely you'll spend more than 80p on petrol getting there....?

Bowling_4_Gold

fluffnutter wrote: »

Which is just opportunism. A debit card transaction costs about 20p so most of this £1.75 is clear profit for the retailer. I'll pay a reasonable charge, but that's too high IMO.

What a load of misguided rubbish. Please show me proof for your claim as fees for debit card are normally at least 35p per transaction.

I think you're also forgetting the installation cost, monthly fee and electricity cost to run the card machine. It all adds up and when they get customers paying silly amounts by card, no wonder the trader will slap £1.75 on top.