Merchants enforcing minimum payments by Visa

[puma85]

I'm not sure if this is the best place to ask this question, but here goes.

 

I get quite annoyed by merchants enforcing minimum payments by card (debit). It seems to be mainly independents and smaller stores. I generally don't carry any cash with me, as its so much easier to pay for everything by contactless or chip&pin. I actually think I spend less as I'm not constantly collecting shrapnel.

 

I've done a little research and it seems Visa's terms and conditions specifically state that merchants cannot enforce a minimum payment for debit cards.

 

My question is has anyone ever reported a store for this, and what was the outcome?

 

 

Thanks!

[xagman]

Hi

 

Where did you find these terms and conditions? I would be interested to see the context/wording as I get annoyed about this as well. Also make sure these are rules for point of sale within Visa Europe jurisdiction, and not say, Visa Inc. (USA) for ecommerce.

 

From what I believed, the problem was enforcing a minimum charge for specific card types over another, rather than a having a blanket minimum charge. Does the store also charge a minimum for credit cards as well as debit cards (or are you talking in general terms)?

 

Regards

 

Martin

[puma85]

I cant post links.. but found this on blog.itsecurityexpert

 

Can Merchants Apply a Minimum Spend or a Surcharge in the UK?

I have been speaking with Visa, MasterCard and Barclaycard about this, and to be honest the answer is not clear cut as I thought it would be, mainly thanks to complicated European Laws and UK Laws, and even local area laws comes into the equation.

 

What I do know is the likes of Visa and MasterCard do have strict regulations which they say apply to all merchants (retail shops) which accept their card payments. These regulations clearly state merchants are not allowed to apply any surcharge or require a minimum spend amount as detailed below.

 

VISA

5.1.C Prohibitions

A Merchant must not:

• Add any surcharges to Transactions, unless local law expressly requires that a Merchant be permitted to impose a surcharge.

 

I have been reading up on the legal side of this issue, as I understand it, it appears merchants are not allowed to profit from surcharging. However going back to the strict card scheme regulations, lets take the scenario where we have a small shop which has been provided with the equipment to accept card payments, as provided by the likes of HSBC and Streamline. From my conversations it came across surcharging and applying a minimum spend in this type of scenario is highly frowned upon by the card schemes (Visa & MasterCard). In fact during my discussions with these card brands, they both offered a method to file a complaint about small merchants doing this.

 

Visa: Notify your Visa card-issuing bank. Visa Member financial institutions have access to the appropriate Visa rules and regulations. Your card-issuing bank can best answer your questions about surcharges. They also have access to the Notification of Customer Complaint forms that should be used by the financial institution to document and file this type of complaint. You can contact them directly, using the address or telephone number on your Visa statement or on the back of your card.

 

MasterCard: File a merchant violation by Email

We do contact the merchant's bank when we see repeated violations and they are requested to maintain appropriate controls over the merchants.

[xagman]

Hi

 

You're mostly talking about surcharges here, which is quite different to a minimum spend amount. Surcharges are lawful, provided as you say, they represent the true cost of processing the transaction. A minimum charge enforced though, say because the merchant is getting charged a flat rate for debit card transactions, is something else.

 

Martin