It used to be you could call out businesses on this practice as banks enforced a no minimum purchase amount policy on merchants taking credit cards. But apparently that’s all changed now.
As a consumer, I hate this.
As a big L Libertarian, it’s within the right of the store to accept the payment it wants under the terms it wants.
Of course as a big L Libertarian, it’s within the rights of the store and the credit card company to negotiate the contract terms that are mutually beneficial.
So, the government screwed up contract rights. I hate that.
But as a consumer, I can still vote with my dollars and not shop at merchants that adhere to minimums.
It’s a loss for freedom of contract rights, but at least no one is telling me that I must shop at these places.
I once had a limit flaunted at me. I said OK and headed out the door, leaving my purchase. They called out and said in my case, they’d ignore the limit. I leaned that the strongest negotiating position is with your back to the salesman.
Stores are welcome to set a limit. If they’re willing to lose the sale over it, that’s their right.
But if the bank charges XX amount to process the charges, you are unfairly costing the merchant his profit on the sale. Should you put a merchant out of business by nibbling away his profit margin?
Some businesses do have the profile of small amount items [dollar stores, ‘5 and Dime stores’ and the like.] If the majority of their merchandise is under $5 the charges for using plastic can very quickly make them unable to continue taking plastic so their option is to either set a minimum or go to cash only. And I can see you folks whinging about this or that store requiring cash, why can’t they take plastic like everybody else. Screwed if they do, screwed if they don’t.
You know, a real simple solution to all this would be to allow merchants to charge a CC fee for purchases under x amount.
I peronally wouldn’t mind paying it as I never carry cash on me. I hate cash.
I seldom use cash and treat my credit cards as 30 same as cash. But I have a problem with the credit card companies that have the add about free money back if you use their credit card. That money comes from the merchant, that means he has to raise the prices for everyone so I canget my free money. If merchants were allowed to charge a CC fee that would be fair to other consumers.
Or, to raise their prices.
As a consumer who does carry cash, I welcome this. Why should I have to pay a higher price, just so people who want to use a credit card to buy a cup of coffee or a pack of gum don’t end up costing the business money?
I don’t have a problem with the ten-dollar minimum charge, as long as the restaurant or store is upfront about it (either with a sign, or a clear note in the menu), so that I’m not caught without enough cash on hand.
BTW, I’ve also heard that the merchant fee varies depending on the type of card used, so that the merchant pays more when I use my frequent-flyer mileage card than a plain no-rewards card. Right now, the FF card is the only one I have, but if the cost is different for retailers and they pass the charge along, I’m willing to get and use a regular card.
Never mind that the merchant already has the right to give discounts to cash customers if they so choose.
Some places (gas stations) do charge for debit card use. That, and the $10 minimum before the law, were never AFAIK “illegal,” but against Visa/MC/et al.'s agreements. Gas stations still aren’t allowed to do that, but they can charge a cash price that is lower, i.e. $4.49 ($4.39 cash) is okay, but $4.39 (and oh by the way we’ll charge more with a card) is bad.
If I saw a sign like that I’d vote with my wallet and immediately walk outside the door.
I don’t mind it. Or at least to the extent I do mind it, I blame the credit card companies instead of the merchant. Credit cards’ merchant agreements effectively prevent competition on usage fees by hiding those fees from customers and making the merchant eat that cost or be locked out of the system.
I see this is the first step of making credit cards a competitive industry again.
If stores don’t like the CC fee, why don’t they give a discount for cash? When I bought my car, they allowed the $1500 down payment and another $1500 on the rest of the price to be on plastic. If they paid 3% to the CC company, they could have given my a $90 discount. Why didn’t they offer it?
Although Libertarians might not like this, the problem with monopolies (in this case a duopoly) is that individual merchants have no leverage. If society were organized on a Libertarian basis, these monopolies and near monopolies would simply take over everything. As soon as a company gains an upper hand, for whatever reason, it would eventually take over the market.
You shouldn’t, but only because charging fees instead of percentages is horribly stupid, as the transaction itself costs about as much as it cost the SDMB server to take my post. Not because you have some entitlement not to have to pay more for choosing an older method of payment.