Can shops have a minimum credit card fee?

ceret

This website http://consumerist.com/consumer/your-rights/how-to-report-merchants-for-requiring-a-minimum-purchase-or-making-you-show-id-333160.php says that shops can't charge a minimum credit card fee for Visa or mastercard.

Is this similar in ireland? And if so, how do I report them?

eth0_

Yes they can. Just as they can refuse to accept a €50 note.

jor el

ceret wrote: »

shops can't charge a minimum credit card fee for Visa or mastercard.

Are you talking about imposing a fee on credit card purchases, the way Airlines charge 10 euro credit card handling, or the way some shops impose a minimum purchase amount for credit cards? The min purchase amount is fine, as they have to make enough on the purchase to cover the fee imposed by the credit card.

The handling fee is a contentious point though. Credit cards charge a percentage of the sale amount (usually in the order of 1-2%) to the retailer. Charging a fixed 10 euro, regardless of the amount purchased, is unfair, and not a credit card fee as is often stated.

Until the credit card companies, and banks, start to penalise retailers for passing on, and inflating, the credit card fees though, nothing will change.

Alcatel

jor el wrote: »

Are you talking about imposing a fee on credit card purchases, the way Airlines charge 10 euro credit card handling, or the way some shops impose a minimum purchase amount for credit cards? The min purchase amount is fine, as they have to make enough on the purchase to cover the fee imposed by the credit card.

The handling fee is a contentious point though. Credit cards charge a percentage of the sale amount (usually in the order of 1-2%) to the retailer. Charging a fixed 10 euro, regardless of the amount purchased, is unfair, and not a credit card fee as is often stated.

Until the credit card companies, and banks, start to penalise retailers for passing on, and inflating, the credit card fees though, nothing will change.

Not 100% true. For one, it's not a percentage for a lot of guys. The retailer pays fixed fees for having the terminal, and there's also different rates applied to different types of card - Eg on an AIB terminal there's more of a charge per transaction (and it's not always a %) for a non-AIB credit card, etc.

It's a fair practice for the retailer that may lose them some business. But for the smaller guy, they could see their entire margin wiped out by the cost of a transaction below a certain amount. So they refuse the business. It's within their rights to refuse to sell you something under certain conditions.

delllat

dunnes stores do it as well,once they wouldnt acept my credit or laser card (cant remember which) for a single item

Slippin Jimmy

eth0_ wrote: »

Yes they can. Just as they can refuse to accept a €50 note.

I didn't think a shop could refuse to accept actual money because after all iot is legal tender. A lot of shops seem to have the minimum payment on cards, if it wasn't legal I don't think they would be doing it.

Ste.phen

How many times is the legal tender thing going to come up? they can refuse any notes, type of money, transaction, etc if they want to

In the US, the card processors make the retailers agree not to charge extra for CC payments, probably because it would discourage CC use, I don't know if the same applies here, but certainly it's not a legal requirement.

eth0_

Technically you can pay for goods with postage stamps (in the UK at least) but you don't see anyone doing this, and I doubt any shops would accept it as a method of payment!

Ste.phen

eth0_ wrote: »

Technically you can pay for goods with postage stamps (in the UK at least) but you don't see anyone doing this, and I doubt any shops would accept it as a method of payment!

I think that still falls under the 'legal tender' category, which only really applies once a legal debt has already been established. If you're still at the point where you've in the shop and haven't yet paid and gotten your receipt, they can probably still cancel the transaction, "invitation to treat" and all that

Gillo

Ste.phen wrote: »

"invitation to treat" and all that

Can anyone else see this going as all those previous "Yes / No" threads???

ceret

Ste.phen wrote: »

In the US, the card processors make the retailers agree not to charge extra for CC payments, probably because it would discourage CC use, I don't know if the same applies here, but certainly it's not a legal requirement.

Yes that's what I'm talking about. Nothing like Ryanair's €10 credit card fee, I'm talking about about €10 minimum credit card transaction.

The link above implies that in the USA, credit card company's make retailers agree to accept a credit card for any amount. I'm curious if that's the case here. I might ring up my bank.

calex71

ceret wrote: »

Yes that's what I'm talking about. Nothing like Ryanair's €10 credit card fee, I'm talking about about €10 minimum credit card transaction.

The link above implies that in the USA, credit card company's make retailers agree to accept a credit card for any amount. I'm curious if that's the case here. I might ring up my bank.

Wondering that myself, i was of the opinion it was the same here, and that it was part of the terms that the creditcard company has with a shop that accepts cards?

Ian Beale

ceret wrote: »

Yes that's what I'm talking about. Nothing like Ryanair's €10 credit card fee, I'm talking about about €10 minimum credit card transaction.

The link above implies that in the USA, credit card company's make retailers agree to accept a credit card for any amount. I'm curious if that's the case here. I might ring up my bank.

A shop can set whatever minimum transaction fee they wish were not legally obliged to take the card even if we have the facility to do so, small sales paid with a visa card can complete wipe out a shops margin. Not only is there rent on the machine but on some cards theres a flat fee and then a % taken too. I once had a guy come in and wanted to buy something that was just over €1 and he hands me a visa card :rolleyes:

ceret

I doubt there's a law in place that says they have to take credit cards, but if the merchant entered an agreement with Visa/Mastercard to accept credit cards for all amounts then that's a different story.