Subway charging extra if you use debit card

Flaccus · 22-05-2015 3:11pm #1

Subway off Cruises St. in Limerick charge an extra 30c if you pay for your sub with a debit card. No signs up anywhere. I obviously declined to pay after I was informed of this charge once the sub was made, and instead went to Subway on O'Connell St. where no such charge applies. I know Subway is franchised so there can be slight differences between them, but are they allowed pass this extra charge on to the customer or are they in breach of some rule (e.g. agreement with their payment provider).

The_Pretender · 22-05-2015 3:30pm

As of the EU Directive brought in last year they cannot charge more than it costs to process the card payment. This would be more so to stop the likes of Ticketmaster who charged several Euro for paying this way for concert tickets.

So yes, they can charge you for using your card because it costs them to process it, but they can only charge up to the amount it costs for them to have the payment processed.

Forest Demon · 22-05-2015 3:31pm

I think anything under 14 euro is a 1 euro charge for them. That's what my local shop told me anyway.

Flaccus · 22-05-2015 3:34pm

Righto. I just won't buy from them in future so. Thanks.

The_Pretender · 22-05-2015 3:35pm

Forest Demon wrote: »

I think anything under 14 euro is a 1 euro charge for them. That's what my local shop told me anyway.

There's a big difference between what your local shop pays to process card payments and what a franchise like subway pays unless your local shop is one of one of the big franchise chains.

It's usually a case of small shops paying small monthly licensing fees and then big fees per transaction while for big companies like Tesco with huge amounts of people paying by card it's large monthly licensing fees and small fees per transaction.

Flaccus · 22-05-2015 3:36pm

Forest Demon wrote: »

I think anything under 14 euro is a 1 euro charge for them. That's what my local shop told me anyway.

Yes, a petrol station I used frequent recently started charging for under 14 euro as well. I was only caught once.

delahuntv · 22-05-2015 4:39pm

Forest Demon wrote: »

I think anything under 14 euro is a 1 euro charge for them. That's what my local shop told me anyway.

No - every debit card transaction has the same cost. Whether it be a €1 transaction or a €10,000 transaction.

A small store will be charged about 20c-25c + vat, so 30c is about right if a place does charge.

A busy store will negotiate a rate of 10c-15c

jimmii · 22-05-2015 4:47pm

delahuntv wrote: »

No - every debit card transaction has the same cost. Whether it be a €1 transaction or a €10,000 transaction.

A small store will be charged about 20c-25c + vat, so 30c is about right if a place does charge.

A busy store will negotiate a rate of 10c-15c

Thats not always true some companies have a cut off at which point the rate changes on debit cards and some companies charge all cards at a % instead of a flat rate.

jimmii · 22-05-2015 4:48pm

There was a thread not so long ago complaining about not being able to use a card somewhere for smaller purchases and the general consensus was that people thought being able to pay a fee for smaller transactions was perfectly fine. I wouldn't have expected you would have to pay it in a brand name place like that though.

Mr. G · 22-05-2015 11:50pm

Forest Demon wrote: »

I think anything under 14 euro is a 1 euro charge for them. That's what my local shop told me anyway.

€1 is colossal. Here's what the minimum with AIB is:
25c per debit card transaction
2.5% on credit cards.
Plus rental for terminal.

However if a shop negotiates with their payment carrier they should be able to get contactless payments (under €15) for about 10c and credit cards at 1.5%. I think it varies though but shops can get them cheaper. They vary a lot but €1 per €14 transaction can't be the case, even with AIB.

When I looked into it I found Payzone were the most expensive.

Honestly I avoid places that charge for the transaction, I think it's stingy. Cash is king as they say, even if it's a pain

the_syco · 22-05-2015 11:56pm

Flaccus wrote: »

Yes, a petrol station I used frequent recently started charging for under 14 euro as well. I was only caught once.

Any idea how much it is for the "under €15 wireless card transactions" are?

Oryx · 23-05-2015 2:39pm

Forest Demon wrote: »

I think anything under 14 euro is a 1 euro charge for them. That's what my local shop told me anyway.

Your local shop need a new card processing company in that case. Never heard of a fee like that. 25c or less per transaction depending on the service provider. Some machines dial out for each transaction so maybe they were factoring that in, but the charge to you is still excessive.

goz83 · 24-05-2015 9:43am

I use Elavon. I only put through a few transactions a month, maybe 30, or less. They range from €25 to €200.....but on occasion, it could be a €10 transaction. I would never pass on the card fee to my clients. Tbh, I am not even sure what the fee is, but I usually get charged about €50 a month with around €30 of it for a mobile terminal I can anywhere in Ireland. I'm with Elavon.

I also use sumup for a different business. Their little terminal is €80 one off fee and the cost per transaction is 2%. I would use them for my main business, but they dont have the ability to charge a customer remotely and the customer must be present, with their card.

uck51js9zml2yt · 24-05-2015 10:43am

goz83 wrote: »

I use Elavon. I only put through a few transactions a month, maybe 30, or less. They range from €25 to €200.....but on occasion, it cTry a €10 transaction. I would never pass on the card fee to my clients. Tbh, I am not even sure what the fee is, but I usually get charged about €50 a month with around €30 of it for a mobile terminal I can anywhere in Ireland. I'm with Elavon.

I also use sumup for a different business. Their little terminal is €80 one off fee and the cost per transaction is 2%. I would use them for my main business, but they dont have the ability to charge a customer remotely and the customer must be present, with their card.

try realex.

jimmii · 24-05-2015 12:39pm

goz83 wrote: »

I use Elavon. I only put through a few transactions a month, maybe 30, or less. They range from €25 to €200.....but on occasion, it could be a €10 transaction. I would never pass on the card fee to my clients. Tbh, I am not even sure what the fee is, but I usually get charged about €50 a month with around €30 of it for a mobile terminal I can anywhere in Ireland. I'm with Elavon.

I also use sumup for a different business. Their little terminal is €80 one off fee and the cost per transaction is 2%. I would use them for my main business, but they dont have the ability to charge a customer remotely and the customer must be present, with their card.

Stripe is a handy one to use with sumup. I use sumup for smaller transactions and as a back up and stripe for customer not present.

Pirates Ale · 25-05-2015 4:24pm

goz83 wrote: »

I use Elavon. I only put through a few transactions a month, maybe 30, or less. They range from €25 to €200.....but on occasion, it could be a €10 transaction. I would never pass on the card fee to my clients. Tbh, I am not even sure what the fee is, but I usually get charged about €50 a month with around €30 of it for a mobile terminal I can anywhere in Ireland. I'm with Elavon.

I also use sumup for a different business. Their little terminal is €80 one off fee and the cost per transaction is 2%. I would use them for my main business, but they dont have the ability to charge a customer remotely and the customer must be present, with their card.

Elavon now offer a similar 'pay as you go' set up like sum up. Its €120 for the terminal, and you can do card not present transactions on it.
I have no experience of it though.

jimmii · 25-05-2015 4:41pm

Pirates Ale wrote: »

Elavon now offer a similar 'pay as you go' set up like sum up. Its €120 for the terminal, and you can do card not present transactions on it.
I have no experience of it though.

Thats handy to know hadn't heart about that cheers!

aon1998 · 12-12-2015 12:05pm

Sorry to bring up an old thread but can shops still charge 25c for purchases under €5 with the new caps on charges to retailers for accepting cards. I think it's 0.1%. So 25c wouldn't be 0.1% of €4 so this would not be allowed under the EU?

jimmii · 12-12-2015 12:10pm

aon1998 wrote: »

Sorry to bring up an old thread but can shops still charge 25c for purchases under €5 with the new caps on charges to retailers for accepting cards. I think it's 0.1%. So 25c wouldn't be 0.1% of €4 so this would not be allowed under the EU?

Thats the wholesale rate not the rate the shops pay. A lot of shops will still be paying a flat rate for debit cards it should encourage some shops to stop charging it but I am sure some will keep it on. We use two processors one has reduced the rate but the other hasn't so not all of them have passed the savings on yet.

GerardKeating · 12-12-2015 2:19pm

delahuntv wrote: »

No - every debit card transaction has the same cost. Whether it be a €1 transaction or a €10,000 transaction.

Kind of, but in addition to the per click fee, they will might also have a monthly terminal rental and maybe an account maintaince fee, and (for very low volume) retailers be as much as the transaction fees.

finbarrk · 15-12-2015 5:07pm

There should be more than 30c charged for those small purchases. Ridiculous paying for the likes of a Subway order with a card. Holding up everyone else while the card is being processed. Personally I think card purchases should be for maybe over €30 of items.

salamanca22 · 15-12-2015 5:10pm

finbarrk wrote: »

There should be more than 30c charged for those small purchases. Ridiculous paying for the likes of a Subway order with a card. Holding up everyone else while the card is being processed. Personally I think card purchases should be for maybe over €30 of items.

Ridiculous. It takes about 20 seconds to use my card. If you cannot wait that long then I don't know what to say really.

Physical cash is on the way out. It might not be this decade or the next but eventually we will all be paying cashless for the majority of our purchases.

Graham · 15-12-2015 5:12pm

finbarrk wrote: »

Holding up everyone else while the card is being processed. Personally I think card purchases should be for maybe over €30 of items.

I'm struggling to imagine what takes you so long to complete a card purchase that you'd cause anyone behind you any significant sort of delay.

Dodge · 15-12-2015 5:13pm

finbarrk wrote: »

Personally I think card purchases should be for maybe over €30 of items.

Takes the same amount of time to process those payments as the smaller amounts...

ThisRegard · 15-12-2015 5:15pm

And with contactless it's more or less quicker than a non exact amount cash payment.

ohnonotgmail · 17-12-2015 12:25pm

Graham wrote: »

I'm struggling to imagine what takes you so long to complete a card purchase that you'd cause anyone behind you any significant sort of delay.

well first of all you have to find the card because they dont seem to realise that they need to take their card out until they have been told the total amount. Though to be honest the same people who cause delays using cards would probably cause the same delays using cash

Graham · 17-12-2015 12:34pm

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

the same people who cause delays using cards would probably cause the same delays using cash

+1

jimmii · 17-12-2015 12:36pm

ohnonotgmail wrote: »

well first of all you have to find the card because they dont seem to realise that they need to take their card out until they have been told the total amount. Though to be honest the same people who cause delays using cards would probably cause the same delays using cash

With cash those people tend to take longer as they have a root around to see if they have change at the bottom of their pocket then their bag then decide no I'll just pay with this 20.

Geuze · 17-12-2015 1:14pm

finbarrk wrote: »

There should be more than 30c charged for those small purchases. Ridiculous paying for the likes of a Subway order with a card. Holding up everyone else while the card is being processed. Personally I think card purchases should be for maybe over €30 of items.

We need to move to a cashless economy to reduce tax evasion, fraud, robberies, reduce costs, etc.

To encourage this, transactions fees need to fall a lot, which is happening, maybe not fast enough.

It's not ridiculous, it's the future.

L1011 · 17-12-2015 1:56pm

finbarrk wrote: »

There should be more than 30c charged for those small purchases. Ridiculous paying for the likes of a Subway order with a card. Holding up everyone else while the card is being processed. Personally I think card purchases should be for maybe over €30 of items.

I'm pretty certain that you wouldn't be physically capable of paying cash as quick as a contactless takes in my local Subway.

rubadub · 17-12-2015 6:30pm

finbarrk wrote: »

There should be more than 30c charged for those small purchases.

I don't see them holding up much, in most shops its the coin counters who take longer.

I do think there should be a surcharge though, I like to pay my own way and not have others subsidise it. Some are calling the shops stingy, but I think it stingy to expect others to pay for you.

In other threads people have said that cash payments also cost a shop to process, so the surcharge should really be the difference in that, it could also be a discount, I have no problem which way it goes. If the difference is minute it is probably not worth the bother though.

Subway charging extra if you use debit card

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