good reason why a newsagent has 50p charge?

aaronl22

Hi all, new to the forum and sorry if this is the wrong place.

In these modern days with contactless and the ability to pay using mobiles, and seeing how often cards are now used, do shops really have transaction charges on low items?

For instance, if I want to pay by DEBIT card in my local shop, I need to to spend at least £5.00 OR face a £0.50p charge! He claims this is because of a transaction fee, but is this right on debit cards?

Thanks,
Aaron

pramsay13

Yes, there is a transaction fee for the business in all of these payment methods, but under the new rules the shopkeepers are not allowed to add a charge on to a customer paying by card.
The shopkeeper is well within his rights to impose a minimum spend, e.g. £5 but should not have an alternative charge.

aaronl22

pramsay13 wrote: »

Yes, there is a transaction fee for the business in all of these payment methods, but under the new rules the shopkeepers are not allowed to add a charge on to a customer paying by card.
The shopkeeper is well within his rights to impose a minimum spend, e.g. £5 but should not have an alternative charge.

Thanks very much for that. So he is allowed to put a minimum spend, but shouldn't be putting a charge on?

Hoogle

New laws states they can not pass transaction fees onto customers, However big companies are getting around it like Just eat by charging everyone an admin fee to process the order.

I think it is fair for small businesses to be able to apply a minimum charge, and to be fair I never minded the 25p or 50p charge if they dont apply it then they will only apply the overall cost to everyone else by increasing prices which could end up forcing them out of business.