can a bar request purchase of certain item to use card?

jimmycrackcorm

jcd5971 wrote:

That's very unfair on Jane what if she only had some nuts.

Jane is a lucky girl then.

CeilingFly

368100 wrote: »

I don't get minimum spend or additional fee policies.......the transaction fee is much less than the comparable cash lodgement or coin exchange fee in a bank so retailers should be encouraging card payments.

Correct

Skatedude wrote: »

I dont think so as the retailer has to pay a transaction fee for EVERY card sale, There is only a single fee for cash or coin lodgement which will consist of probably hundreds of transactions.

Nope - all a percentage of the transaction amount

TheChizler wrote: »

About 0.5% when I used to be doing it. On par with contactless, depending on your merchant services agreement.

Coin 2.45%, cash notes 0.45%, Debit card 0.35% (may be higher for some places but should not be above 0.7%), Credit Card 0.6% - 1.2% depending on volume. Corporate cards extra 0.5%. (I worked for a merchant provider for a while)

Considering the time and effort needed for counting and lodging cash, most retailers should prefer cards especially debit cards.

Main issue is that many retailers don't realise that card charges have dropped (automatically) and cash lodgement charges have increased. If they actually analysed the costs they'd be charging extra for taking cash.

Lux23

I don't mind minimum spends on cards as long as there is a sign highlighting the shop's policy so I can choose to go elsewhere. As far as consumer legislation goes this is probably the only possible breach but they still probably get away with it by telling you at the checkout. The other thing is that the transaction fee should not be more than what it would cost the shop to carry out the transaction. I have been charged 25c to €1 and there is no way that traders are paying that much on each transaction.

Fred Swanson

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blue note

Another possibility is that the kitchen and bar might be run separately and for the bar to use their credit card terminal there would have to be some crossover of sales. So if the OP got two coffees and two cakes the price might have been €14 so well in excess of any minimum spend, but all the items might have come from the caterers. I can think of two places off the top of my head where the kitchen and bar operate separately and I can't fully remember how I pay for the different things - maybe sometimes the waiting staff will separate it themselves for me, maybe sometimes I've paid at the two different tills.

I wonder if something like this happened and the barman just didn't explain it properly.

Stone Deaf 4evr

If retailers have a 'minimum spend' policy with regards to cards, they'd better have a big sign up saying same or I'm off out the door. If you've got the visa/mastercard logos on the door going into the shop, then as far as I'm concerned its game on unless you clearly indicate otherwise.

I've walked away from a service station leaving 3 freshly brewed coffees still on the counter over this, I'm not going buying some random rubbish just to push it over their arbitrary threshold. If aldi can can charge under a euro to a card and not create a fuss, I cant see why its not the case everywhere else.

CeilingFly

Fred Swanson wrote: »

It has been thrashed out here many times about how much retailers pay to take cards.

Typical costs would be Debit cards a flat 25 cent fee regardless of amount. Credit cards can be up to 2.5% of the value.

.

That would have been the case 2 years ago.

Budget 2015 brought in lower termination costs. All merchant providers changed how they charge.

A small retailer should not be paying over 0,6% for debit cards and 1.25% for credit cards.

If they are, one phonecall to the many merchant providers will get them those rates.

Fred Swanson

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harr

Stone Deaf 4evr wrote: »

If retailers have a 'minimum spend' policy with regards to cards, they'd better have a big sign up saying same or I'm off out the door. If you've got the visa/mastercard logos on the door going into the shop, then as far as I'm concerned its game on unless you clearly indicate otherwise.

I've walked away from a service station leaving 3 freshly brewed coffees still on the counter over this, I'm not going buying some random rubbish just to push it over their arbitrary threshold. If aldi can can charge under a euro to a card and not create a fuss, I cant see why its not the case everywhere else.

Because as you have been told before the likes of aldi and the bigger supermarkets pay substantially less fees than your typical corner shop or independent forecourt..
It doesn't make Financial sense to let someone pay for very small items using card payments...I don't see how some people can't get that point.

TheChizler

harr wrote: »

Because as you have been told before the likes of aldi and the bigger supermarkets pay substantially less fees than your typical corner shop or independent forecourt..
It doesn't make Financial sense to let someone pay for very small items using card payments...I don't see how some people can't get that point.

Makes far more sense than being paid in coin.

Sleeper12

It used to be illegal to give credit on alcohol and as far as I know it still is. I've often wondered if credit cards are actually illegal when buying alcohol.

Sleeper12

25c per transaction on debit cards in the norm from most merchant accounts so I can see how some business have a minimum spend

Fred Swanson

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NRR

harr wrote: »

Because as you have been told before the likes of aldi and the bigger supermarkets pay substantially less fees than your typical corner shop or independent forecourt..
It doesn't make Financial sense to let someone pay for very small items using card payments...I don't see how some people can't get that point.

Perhaps if you're talking items under 1 or 2 EUR, but ultimately, this is a (potentially unfortunate, depending how you look at it) cost of doing business.

Coming from outside Ireland myself, I was initially shocked at how many businesses don't accept card or only begrudgingly accept card payments here. Suppose it's easier to evade the tax man that way though!

CeilingFly

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Sleeper12 wrote: »

25c per transaction on debit cards in the norm from most merchant accounts so I can see how some business have a minimum spend

Not anymore. The norm is now a % and a very low one at that.

The idea was to make contactless transactions cheaper than cash and in most cases it is.

I think Elavon were the last to change to a percentage figure about 10 months ago. Barclaycard, First data & Worldpay have been doing percentage since before January 2016.

As above, any reasonable volume and you'd be under 0.4% for debit card - resonable volume would be just 15k a month in card payments. High voilume and you'll get 0.3%

Possibly some places that sell high value items have kept a per transaction fee, but the norm is now a %.

As I said, I worked for a while with one of the merchant providers.

Lau2976

Just a quick update, one of the friends I was with queried it with the manager because he was also told the same when paying and was told he had been given wrong information by the bar staff.

She said that no sick policy existed and that he may have confused it with the minimum charge. I'm not really sure how he'd mix it up that much but I'm not really that bothered. I still probably won't be returning.