Debit card charges

princessleia

Payment is due for my lovely green bin from the council. If I pay by direct debit the charge is £45 if I pay by direct debit or credit card it is £52. I would like to pay by direct debit. Is it legal to pay an extra £7 on £45?

[Deleted User]

If that's what they want to charge, then yes.

reclusive46

Yes although they are definitely taking advantage, it does not cost £7 to process a credit card transaction on £45.

fcmisc

That's quite unfair. But unfortunately they are all doing it. It is a bit like paying to buy a plane ticket.

reclusive46

fcmisc wrote: »

That's quite unfair. But unfortunately they are all doing it. It is a bit like paying to buy a plane ticket.

Indeed. These days I try to book with a foreign airline. They don't normally charge a fee. Cathay Pacific and Delta haven't charged me on my last two trips.

Sometimes you can even book through a partner airline of the British airline and you don't pay the fee. American Airlines is like that, you can book a BA flight through them without paying a fee.

princessleia

Thanks for all the replies. Better pay up!

Wywth

princessleia wrote: »

Payment is due for my lovely green bin from the council. If I pay by direct debit the charge is £45 if I pay by direct debit or credit card it is £52. I would like to pay by direct debit. Is it legal to pay an extra £7 on £45?

Is this Chichester Council?

http://www.chichester.gov.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5179

If so, I've even more bad news for you.

After you've paid your £45 or £52, the green bin will still belong to the council!

pb3

fcmisc wrote: »

That's quite unfair. But unfortunately they are all doing it. It is a bit like paying to buy a plane ticket.

A £7 surcharge on a £45 transaction is well and truly taking the p*ss :mad:

The fees charged by CC companies range from around 3 to 5% of the value of the transaction. I don't mind companies passing on the true costs of providing credit card facilities, but as ever a fair few use the surcharge as a cynical mechanism to gouge their customers.

However the OP will be happy to know that there is hope on the horizon :j

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-12430635

Apparently these changes are coming in from April 2013, and in a nutshell will limit the surcharges merchants can levy.

The merchants will of course find other ways to continue their gouging, but for now a small victory for the customer.

Buzby

The problem still exists as even following the change, consumers will find there is still coercion to pay by DD (where you let the merchant have a completely free reign to take as much as they want, as often as they want). Leaving you to chase the vendor if it all goes wrong with no right of compensation or consequential loss.

I had hoped for a more universal levelling - where merchants are not permitted to discriminate against or favour any payment method.

The current system where customers are expected to pay all costs of the business as it trades is nonsensical. Where will it end? Paying their electricity too?

pb3

Buzby wrote: »

The problem still exists as even following the change, consumers will find there is still coercion to pay by DD (where you let the merchant have a completely free reign to take as much as they want, as often as they want). Leaving you to chase the vendor if it all goes wrong with no right of compensation or consequential loss.

In light of your post, I realise that the situation that the OP describes is not quite as clear-cut as a £7 surcharge on a £45 transaction

I guess the council in question will no doubt argue that the true cost to them of providing a wheelie bin to the OP is £52, however they are graciously offering a discount of £7 if the OP chooses to pay by direct debit.

Sigh... I can see a lot of councils getting around this legislation in this way

Buzby

Not only that, but if the Council only received the DD detail of the customer to process the Bin fee, the data will be retained and, I have no doubt, will help themselves if a Council Fee is late or delinquent.