MSE News: Some credit card users STILL being charged despite ban

d123

barcopennight wrote: »

I am trying to get a flat in London and noticed that on the invoice they will charge 2% for credit cards. This amount covers one month's rent, six month's deposit and agency fees so is quite sizeable. Is charging for credit cards illegal under these new laws? Note the estate agent is a company, it is not direct with the Landlord.

Start by reporting the company to the Trading Standards local to them.

PeacefulWaters

Is charging for credit cards illegal under these new laws?

Given the title of the thread, what's your best guess?

Chrysalis

PeacefulWaters wrote: »

Given the title of the thread, what's your best guess?

I think the question is reasonable, so many laws have loopholes which the agent may have found one to exploit.

glider3560

I use a car park owned by Guildford Borough Council. There is one parking meter accepting cash only. To pay by card, you have to call RingGo, who charge a 19p "convenience" fee.

Given the only way to pay by card is to pay a "convenience fee", would this count as a card payment surcharge and therefore be subject to the regulations?

chattychappy

glider3560 wrote: »

I use a car park owned by Guildford Borough Council. There is one parking meter accepting cash only. To pay by card, you have to call RingGo, who charge a 19p "convenience" fee.

Given the only way to pay by card is to pay a "convenience fee", would this count as a card payment surcharge and therefore be subject to the regulations?

This is interesting and could be a useful loophole for merchants. I suspect that RingGo are acting as agents and on balance the arrangement breaches the regulations. But what if they weren't? What if are selling a you the space instead of Guildford, so effectively you have a choice of suppliers?

I raised this possibility earlier. You can imagine holiday companies operating through two retailers: "Sunny Holidays Cash Ltd" and "Sunny Holidays Credit Cards Ltd" where each only take one method of payment and the CC outlet charges 3% more. This did happen before with CC acceptance in order to avoid VAT.

tastyfish

Tried to book flights with Opodo. As soon as I entered my mastercard details the price went up. When I clicked on 'price breakdown' they even had the nerve to state paying by mastercard was free.

Clearly it wasn't. It looks like they offer a 'discount' if you don't use a credit card. But that to me means they are still charging you depending on payment method. I thought the law was very clear on this.

It's illegal. Who can I report this to?

eskbanker

tastyfish wrote: »

Tried to book flights with Opodo. As soon as I entered my mastercard details the price went up. When I clicked on 'price breakdown' they even had the nerve to state paying by mastercard was free.

Clearly it wasn't. It looks like they offer a 'discount' if you don't use a credit card. But that to me means they are still charging you depending on payment method. I thought the law was very clear on this.

It's illegal. Who can I report this to?

Trading Standards.

It's not necessarily a card surcharge as such though, there have been numerous previous reports of price increases after the initial fare display, such as:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5262645/opodo-extra-charge

stevenhp1987

eskbanker wrote: »

Trading Standards.

It's not necessarily a card surcharge as such though, there have been numerous previous reports of price increases after the initial fare display, such as:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5262645/opodo-extra-charge

It is a card surcharge.

They are charging "free" to use a credit card, and offer a £xx.xx discount to use Debit Card, which constitutes a card surcharge.

A discount for paying by Debit Card constitutes a card surcharge on a Credit Card, thus, Opodo are breaking the law.

eskbanker

stevenhp1987 wrote: »

It is a card surcharge.

They are charging "free" to use a credit card, and offer a £xx.xx discount to use Debit Card, which constitutes a card surcharge.

A discount for paying by Debit Card constitutes a card surcharge on a Credit Card, thus, Opodo are breaking the law.

Yes, I agree that offering a discount on non-CC payments is equivalent to a surcharge on CC payments!

The poster referred to 'discount' (in quotes) which implied to me that it wasn't an explicit discount as such, so as I read it, the scenario is that referred to in the other threads, i.e. price increases applied at the point of committing, which aren't necessarily indicative of card surcharges as such.

But if your middle statement is factual (i.e. that it can clearly be demonstrated that paying with different payment types results in different prices) then yes, that would undoubtedly be unlawful....

callum9999

eskbanker wrote: »

Yes, I agree that offering a discount on non-CC payments is equivalent to a surcharge on CC payments!

The poster referred to 'discount' (in quotes) which implied to me that it wasn't an explicit discount as such, so as I read it, the scenario is that referred to in the other threads, i.e. price increases applied at the point of committing, which aren't necessarily indicative of card surcharges as such.

But if your middle statement is factual (i.e. that it can clearly be demonstrated that paying with different payment types results in different prices) then yes, that would undoubtedly be unlawful....

Most of these slightly more obscure online travel agents do this. It's not specifically debit card vs credit card, it's generally one single type of card. I'd imagine they'd therefore argue it's a promotion and not a card charge.