Debit card

letsbehonest

I have posted on two other boards with this debit card story mostly for info.
I bought some Holiday travel insurance from a company endorsed by MSE, I found out on the payment page of the transaction that 3% will be added to the payment if credit or debit cards were used ( how else are you to pay?). I found later that the transaction did not go through online for whatever reason so I phoned them for confirmation and an explanation. whilst in conversation with one of their sales people I brought up the subject of their debit card charges stating that Barclays Connect don't charge 3% so why do us customers have to pay it. " Oh thats on the online form and is grouped together with the credit card surcharge, I won't make a 3% charge if you rebuy over the phone as long as you are using your debit card
Am I missing something here?

fudgeukraine

Are you sure that the notice states that 3% of the charge is a debit fee but it makes up the full total anyway. There's signs along those lines displayed beside tills in most shops. It's something about how that small charge is made payable to something like 'store name credit services' for them to accept the debit/credit payment, but it doesn't affect the overall price than if you were paying by cash'

RadoJo

It sounds like they are spreading the cost of processing cards - with a debit card there is a flat fee paid by the retailer whenever they process a debit card transaction, but with a credit card, the fee payable is a percentage of the total, so the higher the price the higher the fee.

It sounds as though this company have worked out the average percentage of these charges across all transactions and decided to apply the same surcharge to everyone.

Sooler

Which company?

letsbehonest

Atlas direct.

Sooler

"We welcome Visa, MasterCard, American Express and debit cards
A small handling charge of 3% (minimum of £1.00) will be applied to credit and debit card transactions - this is due to the high costs imposed upon us by the card issuers."

3% for debit cards is extortionate - high even for credit cards, seems to be an unavoidable charge on the website. Not aware of any other company that charges this much.