MSE News: Credit and debit card charges banned from Saturday - what you need to know

chattychappy

juno-eclipse wrote: »

Sorry if this has been covered, so this isn't just shops, it's any company at all? My friend pays his rent via debit card to his letting agent and they charge a fee (we're still working on his budgeting skills :-P) can I tell him that there not allowed to charge this? They don't charge it if you choose to pay by standing order so it's definitely a card fee.

Cheers
Juno

No they can charge if the tenancy was agreed before the law changed.

Nick_C

CunningPlan wrote: »

I challenged them - on Twitter - and they say that it is '3rd party credit card'' and therefore they can charge. Spoke to AMEX UK and they say this is not correct.

The EU directive banning surcharges for payments by credit card does not apply to payments by Amex.

The UK has gone further than the requirements of the directive by treating Amex payments the same as Visa or Mastercard

However, your online transaction with KLM is presumably taking place in The Netherlands, so it is probable that an Amex surcharge is permitted under Dutch law.

elsien

I have just been told by a car dealership that I can pay up to £1000 on my CC with no extra charge but they will charge a fee for anything over that.
I challenged it and they said they were allowed to do this - no reason given. There was no charge for paying the additional amount (£2000) by debit card.
Are they correct?

chattychappy

elsien wrote: »

I have just been told by a car dealership that I can pay up to £1000 on my CC with no extra charge but they will charge a fee for anything over that.
I challenged it and they said they were allowed to do this - no reason given. There was no charge for paying the additional amount (£2000) by debit card.
Are they correct?

No, they are wrong. They cannot discriminate. They are free to refuse CC for the extra amount altogether. But they cannot charge more if they do accept it.

juno-eclipse

chattychappy wrote: »

No they can charge if the tenancy was agreed before the law changed.

Thanks for your reply, no hes paid cash and debit card for over 10 years it was only last year they started charging people for paying by cash or card, is accepting to pay the charge last year like agreeing to a new term with them or can he insist they don't charge?

Thank you again.
Juno

No_6

Have a chat with them, nice and easy !
tell him you will not buy unless you get a good deal
for using a C.Card.

been their, done it....if not walk away.

chattychappy

juno-eclipse wrote: »

Thanks for your reply, no hes paid cash and debit card for over 10 years it was only last year they started charging people for paying by cash or card, is accepting to pay the charge last year like agreeing to a new term with them or can he insist they don't charge?

Thank you again.
Juno

I think I'd look at the tenancy. If it doesn't refer to CC and/or charging for cards, then it's a little tricky. It could be said that aside from the tenancy, there is now a separate arrangement concerning card payments and this was entered into last year. Or it could be argued that each payment is some kind of new agreement to take payment by CC and he's not entitled to charge. On balance, I think he is entitled to charge, especially since the tenancy itself pre-dates the law change.

That said, I have a few tenants. My agreement always says "payment by bank transfer". Despite this, one pays by cheque (which costs me more) and one pays by cash (which is fine). But they pay on time and I'm happy. The fear of all landlords is unreliable tenants. If one of them asked to pay be CC I wouldn't antagonise them by charging extra, regardless of the law.

So perhaps the landlord can be pursuaded by reference to the law, even if technically he might have a defence.

bailey70

I've been paying for car parking in Coventry for a few months on an app called MiPermit and it charges 10p more than the value of a ticket purchased from the Pay and Display machines.

Since the new law came into force they have continued to charge the extra 10p, MiPermit and Coventry City Council have so far failed to respond to my queries... you'd think that having just made massive increases to parking rates (the overnight/Sunday fee was actually doubled from 50p to £1 just a couple of months ago) they could afford to cover this fee!

Shakin_Steve

bailey70 wrote: »

I've been paying for car parking in Coventry for a few months on an app called MiPermit and it charges 10p more than the value of a ticket purchased from the Pay and Display machines.

Since the new law came into force they have continued to charge the extra 10p, MiPermit and Coventry City Council have so far failed to respond to my queries... you'd think that having just made massive increases to parking rates (the overnight/Sunday fee was actually doubled from 50p to £1 just a couple of months ago) they could afford to cover this fee!

These charges may have nothing to do with CC charges, they could say they are admin costs or similar.

bailey70

Shakin_Steve wrote: »

These charges may have nothing to do with CC charges, they could say they are admin costs or similar.

I see what you're saying... but if it's a surcharge that ONLY applies if you pay by debit or credit card, no matter what the method, surely this would still be a breach of the law. It's not as if they're charging me to deliver the car park to me, I'm still having to go there to use it.

And if this were the case you'd thing MiPermit or Coventry City Council would have been a lot quicker to respond.