Card charging fee

DB74656

Hello

Appreciate any input from more knowledgeable people on this subject.
I've been using a prebooked taxi service and, having had to use my credit card lately have noticed I'm being charged 50p extra on top of a £5 fare. When I asked why my journey was costing more the driver stated that it was a charge for using my card rather than paying by cash.
I was under the impression the law had changed early this year to make that no longer legal. When I spoke to him on this issue he claimed he was exempt as he wasn't a business and the taxi hire company was merely his "agent".
Rather not take his word or the taxi firms word for it (as the taxi drivers pay the taxi firm, not me as a customer, so were not interested in my concerns/feedback).

Do they have a right to charge card fees or should I state it's not legal for them to do so and refuse to pay the extra charge?
Thank you.

DB74656

Just to add the taxi firm backed him up and also stated the high court had overruled the card charge fee law but I'm finding it difficult to research this.

DoaM

Card charges haven't been outlawed - what changed was that the charges need to reflect the actual cost to the recipient and not some arbitrary percentage of the transaction value.

I would imagine that there will be a minimum cost, and credit card charges are generally higher than debit card charges, so 50p on a £5 fare is 10% but may be reasonable.

[Deleted User]

Businesses can no longer charge tender specific fees - so a fee that only applies to credit cards isn't allowed.

However, an admin charge across all tender types would be acceptable, but that doesn't seem to be the case here.

agrinnall

DoaM wrote: »

Card charges haven't been outlawed - what changed was that the charges need to reflect the actual cost to the recipient and not some arbitrary percentage of the transaction value.

I would imagine that there will be a minimum cost, and credit card charges are generally higher than debit card charges, so 50p on a £5 fare is 10% but may be reasonable.

Apart from the first 5 words this is wrong, as explained by zx81. If the taxi firm don't want to take cards because it costs them too much (although a 10% processing fee sound unfeasibly high) they are at liberty not to allow card payment, or they can levy a fee on all payment methods, but they can't apply a charge only to card payments.


The article below includes a link on how to report anyone flouting the rules.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/cards/2018/01/cards-fees-to-be-banned-from-saturday

DB74656

Would this still apply given that he's stated he's not part of a business and the taxi firm is merely his agent who pays to have access to customers?
This sounded unlikely to me but he seemed adamant on that point.
The taxi firm who I called to complain also stated that that ruling had since been overturned. Is there truth in any of this?

DB74656

Who *he* pays to have access. Sorry can't seem to edit my post.

[Deleted User]

DB74656 wrote: »

Would this still apply given that he's stated he's not part of a business and the taxi firm is merely his agent who pays to have access to customers?
This sounded unlikely to me but he seemed adamant on that point.
The taxi firm who I called to complain also stated that that ruling had since been overturned. Is there truth in any of this?

No. Both of those points are gibberish.

DB74656

Would you happen to know of any links I could reference if challenged on this?
Thanks for your help so far really appreciate it.

molerat

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/card-surcharge-ban-means-no-more-nasty-surprises-for-shoppers

DB74656

Thanks everyone this has been very useful. Appreciate your input.