Wedding venue charging credit card fee

Drummer1991

Hi all. I’m about to start making the payments for my wedding venue. I’d like to do this via credit card but the contract I signed at the end of 2020 says the following: “We are able to receive payments by cash, bank transfer, cheque or debit card. To be able to receive payment by credit card however a 2.5% charge with be levied against the payment received.”

I’m going to be paying around £7k so 2.5% of that adds up to about £170 which is quite a whack. Am I right in thinking it’s no longer legal for merchants to charge fees for credit card use and, if I’m right, does this law apply in Scotland and can someone name it for me? 

Thanks in advance. 

jbrassy

You are right. It is illegal for them to charge 2.5% for credit card transactions and no fee for other payments. This has been in place since January 2018 and was part of the EU Second Payments Systems Directive which was transposed into UK law post-Brexit:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/card-surcharge-ban-means-no-more-nasty-surprises-for-shoppers

mjm3346

It was bringing in a thing from the EU so will have applied to Scotland as well


https://www.businesscompanion.info/en/quick-guides/pricing-and-payment/payment-surcharges

Drummer1991

Thanks both! Hugely helpful. 

PRAISETHESUN

I'm assuming you want to pay by CC to get S75 protection? If so then you only need to pay a small deposit on CC and then you can settle the account by any other means and you'll still be covered for the full amount (between £100-£30k).

But as the other posters have mentioned, it's not legal to be charging payment fees unless they apply to all payment methods. 

Drummer1991

PRAISETHESUN said:

I'm assuming you want to pay by CC to get S75 protection? If so then you only need to pay a small deposit on CC and then you can settle the account by any other means and you'll still be covered for the full amount (between £100-£30k).

But as the other posters have mentioned, it's not legal to be charging payment fees unless they apply to all payment methods. 

I didn’t know that - thanks very much. It’s partly for protection, yes, but also because I get good rewards so want to maximise that as much as possible. 

k3lvc

It'll be interesting to know how you get on when you challenge them on this - I suspect they may change their tune to 'we don't accept credit cards'

Brie

I think it's probably something as simple as "oops, we need to update our contract template!"

PRAISETHESUN

Drummer1991 said:

PRAISETHESUN said:

I'm assuming you want to pay by CC to get S75 protection? If so then you only need to pay a small deposit on CC and then you can settle the account by any other means and you'll still be covered for the full amount (between £100-£30k).

But as the other posters have mentioned, it's not legal to be charging payment fees unless they apply to all payment methods. 

I didn’t know that - thanks very much. It’s partly for protection, yes, but also because I get good rewards so want to maximise that as much as possible. 

For more info on section 75, see here: https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/section75-protect-your-purchases/

In theory you can pay as little as a penny and still be covered but in practice most people pay more. If they don't relent on the % fee and you still want to go with them then at least you can minimise the amount of fee you do end up paying by only paying it on a small deposit. It doesn't help with maxing out CC rewards though.

Ebe_Scrooge

Just to clarify - it's a personal card you're using, rather than a business card?  They are still allowed to levy a surcharge on business credit cards.

But as k3lvc says, there's nothing to stop them simply refusing to accept a credit card at all, if they want to.

eskbanker

jbrassy said:

You are right. It is illegal for them to charge 2.5% for credit card transactions and no fee for other payments. This has been in place since January 2018 and was part of the EU Second Payments Systems Directive which was transposed into UK law post-Brexit:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/card-surcharge-ban-means-no-more-nasty-surprises-for-shoppers

For the record, this prohibition of selective surcharging (for non-commercial cards) aspect of PSD II had already been enacted into UK legislation long before Brexit by the Payment Services Regulations 2017, Schedule 8 Part 3 paragraph 12 of which amends the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012 accordingly....