retailer charges for payment by credit card

plasticpete

How much extra can a retailer legally charge a customer who wishes to pay by credit card? I was shopping in Porthmadog last Saturday and, in a cafe, asked if they accepted credit cards ( the bill was a little under £7). I was told that I would have to pay an extra 80p to use a credit card. I had previously thought that such a blanket flat rate charge was illegal and had to fairly reflect the costs charged by the card issuer's bank to the card issuer ie 2-3%. On that basis the surcharge would have been 21p.
I didn't argue and paid by cash - I suppose that it would have been petty to argue about 60p - but the principle rankles. What do others think?

Fruit_and_Nut_Case

Welcome to MSE :wave:

Here's some guidance from the Government. You would have to find out what the merchant's actual costs are.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

seems it's 80p per transaction, look.

Voyager2002

The charges must fairly reflect the additional cost to the retailer. If the cafe was a small business then the card company might well charge them a pound for the service.

plasticpete

Thank you to all who replied and clarified the situation so well. It appears from the article to which I was referred that the caf! owner would have been exempt from the regulations as a micro business; in any case, would have been entitled to average charges made to him/her by the card issuer; and, finally might have been charged 80p or more by the card issuer being a small business, unable to negotiate a smaller charge.
Next time I'll go prepared t pay cash or eat somewhere else.

[Deleted User]

Hi,

[Deleted User] wrote:

Hi,

seems it's 80p per transaction, look.

oops, , sorry, may have been wrong, that 80p was on a £100 transaction.

SuperHan

plasticpete wrote: »

Thank you to all who replied and clarified the situation so well. It appears from the article to which I was referred that the caf! owner would have been exempt from the regulations as a micro business; in any case, would have been entitled to average charges made to him/her by the card issuer; and, finally might have been charged 80p or more by the card issuer being a small business, unable to negotiate a smaller charge.
Next time I'll go prepared t pay cash or eat somewhere else.

Micro-businesses had to abide by the regulation from June this year, so it shouldn't have made a difference in that regard.

However, that said, it's possible that they pay a flat fee for the service though, and I believe they are allowed to pass on all costs of the service, so it may include the annual fees they pay in addition to a percentage charged on each transaction.

80p, while annoying, doesn't seem unreasonable or excessive... I think the law was more to prevent the likes of RyanAir charging £5, which was obviously unnecessary.

jdwatt86uk

It seem that Nisa Local believe that it is perfectly acceptable to charge a blanket 50p surcharge for all card payments. I challenged this with the consumer advice department, citing the "The Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012", and received the following response from them?!

Good Morning,

Thank you for taking the time to contact Nisa and bringing this matter to our attention.

Each store is an independent business and not owned or directly controlled by Nisa however we do actively encourage Nisa retailers to maintain the highest standards and operate best practices across all areas of their stores.

It is becoming common practice in many smaller convenience stores across the retail industry to issue a surcharge for using a debit or credit card and unfortunately there are currently no legal restrictions or requirements regarding this matter.

I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Kind Regards


Lydia Eyre
Consumer Enquiries
Nisa Retail Limited

glider3560

What I find annoying is that shops/pubs/cafes/wherever have the Visa and MasterCard logos in the door but fail to tell you they charge an additional fee until you attempt to pay. Surely they have to advertise the fee somewhere?

timbo58

Whilst annoying, it seems daft to me -surely as long as you are told of the surcharge before taking the goods/service the retailer should be able to set what level of surcharge they like?

I wonder if a retailer can avoid this by simply adding a percentage to all goods and then offering a discount for cash?

I do know a retailer can pay anything upwards of 3% to process card payments to merchant banks, and think the problem lies there -it doesn't cost the bank that much to process such payments either!

glider3560

timbo58 wrote: »

Whilst annoying, it seems daft to me -surely as long as you are told of the surcharge before taking the goods/service the retailer should be able to set what level of surcharge they like?

Recent examples include a pub which told me there was a 75p charge after pouring my pint and a takeaway who said there was a 60p charge on collecting my cooked food.

I doubt neither would have been happy if I'd turned around and walked out.