Are retailers breaching merchant rules by imposing minimum spend to pay by card?

iAMaLONDONER

I have heard retailers are breaching merchant rules ( for Visa & Mastercard) if they impose charges or a minimum spend for card usage. Is this corrrect or are there loopholes?

noh

No it is not correct.
They are not breaching any rules.

Buzby

When cards were introduced it was a merchant requirement that retailers could not add additional charges for card payments, and could not insist on a minimum spend.

This was quickly forgotten about when the merchant agreements we re-drawn in the late 70's - now, with the exception of petrol and diesel (where no surcharge can be applied) everything else is fair game. The stipulation is that any restrictions or additional costs must be signalled in advance.

Hominu

Buzby wrote: »

now, with the exception of petrol and diesel (where no surcharge can be applied) everything else is fair game. The stipulation is that any restrictions or additional costs must be signalled in advance.

I thought there was a new ruling, meaning that retailers could not apply a surcharge greater than what it costs them to process a transaction, regardless of whether it was stated in advance or not? So if it cost them 2.5%, they couldn't charge the customer 10%

Aquamania

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

I have heard retailers are breaching merchant rules ( for Visa & Mastercard) if they impose charges or a minimum spend for card usage. Is this corrrect or are there loopholes?

Probably :cool:

Aquamania

Hominu wrote: »

I thought there was a new ruling, meaning that retailers could not apply a surcharge greater than what it costs them to process a transaction, regardless of whether it was stated in advance or not? So if it cost them 2.5%, they couldn't charge the customer 10%

You'd better tell the government DVLA about that ruling

retiredin2011

You'd better tell the government DVLA about that ruling

and travel agents.

reclusive46

Travel agents and airlines are getting away with it using the excuse that they don't know how much they will be charged. Which to be fair to them is the case with Visa and MasterCard (American Express has the same fee for all of their cards). World Elite MasterCards and World MasterCard can charge up to an extra 2.5% (Depending on what country it was issued in) as can Visa Signature cards (Not issued in the UK).

bigadaj

retiredin2011 wrote: »

and travel agents.

Though you're not bothered as you're paying cash aren't you?

retiredin2011

Though you're not bothered as you're paying cash aren't you?

Correct.









. .

gt94sss2

Hominu wrote: »

I thought there was a new ruling, meaning that retailers could not apply a surcharge greater than what it costs them to process a transaction, regardless of whether it was stated in advance or not? So if it cost them 2.5%, they couldn't charge the customer 10%

The Government introduced some new legislation covering this recently - see here and here

Regards
Sunil