retailer charges for payment by credit card

glider3560

prowla wrote: »

I don't like unannounced surcharges, and it puts me off buying things at places.

However, the government charge £2.50 for paying your road tax (or is it TV licence - one of those, anyway) by CC, so apparently they think it's OK.

Road tax. TV Licence accepts credit card without surcharge online.

RMS2

I don't know why people expect to be able to pay small bills by plastic and not incur a surcharge. Use cash for small purchases and plastic for larger ones, where there is enough profit to cover it and relative to the sale, it has become small enough.


I was in our village shop/post office this week. It's a proper shop, but is a not for profit community run, mainly staffed by volunteers. So the post office till (where I was at) and the shop till are almost right next to each other. I heard the cashier say there was a minimum £5 spend to use the card, to which the guy said 'oh dear' and stuck his paper and Mars Bar back and walked out.


Why do people think it's okay to spend £1.50 on a card and not even have that small amount of cash to cover it, that they have to leave it and walk out.

JethroUK

plasticpete wrote: »

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?

Not sure where you got that law from because there isn't one

Small retailers are charged by percentage which is probably where you got it from but of course they don't have any boundaries as to how they pass that on. Some don't pass it on at all

I remember when I worked at halfords we were charged 2.5 %but never passed this on

Of course these petty retailers should remember that credit card companies are lending money to their customer so they can buy from them so morally they should just suck it up and if I were the credit card company I would demand they do not penalise credit card customers with a fine otherwise the credit card facility will be removed altogether

= they will not be allowed to take credit cards at all so those customers who prefer to shop by credit card will give their money to their competitors instead

chattychappy

JethroUK wrote: »

Not sure where you got that law from because there isn't one

Retailers are allowed to pass on the cost of CC acceptance, but fees are not supposed to exceed the cost to the retailer. Ie they are not meant to profit from the CC fees.

JethroUK wrote: »

if I were the credit card company I would demand they do not penalise credit card customers with a fine otherwise the credit card facility will be removed altogether

They cannot do that. T+Cs that prevent retailers passing on the cost of CC acceptance have not been enforceable since the early 90s. (At least until recently, I know the law was under review). Good thing too, in my opinion. Otherwise it becomes anti-competitive.