Business & Finance

This happens in restaurants and other stores to force the customer to buy more than they needed or wanted. It seems that way to me, anyway.

It is against credit card policy for a merchant to place a surcharge/fee, and to request ID for items that don't include tobacco, alcohol, etc, when a transaction is made.

If a consumer files a complaint with the credit card company, the merchant may be warned for the first infraction. Further infractions made by the merchant can result in a fine and finally, they could lose the right to accept that type of card, ie Visa, MC, etc.

The following states have made it illegal to charge a surcharge/fee for non state/government transactions:

California
Colorado
Connecticut
Florida
Kansas
Maine
Massachusetts
New York
Oklahoma
Texas
Minnesota (caps surcharges at 5%)


Debit cards do not have the same protections that a credit card has.

Credit card companies have agreements with merchants that they cannot charge more for credit card purchases than for cash (or give a cash discount). But they cannot "require" a merchant to accept a credit card. If someone has a link to something official that says something different, post it here.

It costs the merchant a fee (minimum fee plus percentage) to get their money for credit card purchases. So they are free to not accept credit cards for small purchases, or even very large purchases (like a vehicle). They just cannot charge extra "if" they accept a credit card.

You can contact the credit card co for this (if you were using a visa; contact visa; MC contact MC etc). Most credit card companies, in their terms negotiated with the seller, have rules about this. If it is in the seller contract with visa, then no, they can't limit the amount of purchase. Visa investigates these.

It's allowed. They are not required by law to offer payment by credit/debit cards. The reason they do this is because with each transaction they are required to pay a certain percentage in merchant fees. For smaller businesses, they would actually lose money on the sale if the price was too small....like under $5.

yeah they have to pay a fee for using credit so they make you pay a certain amount.

diane is right they arnt supposed to do it and you can report them and it would be investigated. i watched the movie Maxed Out and they talked about that. ( i think thats where i heard it)

Most places have a $5 minimum (though McDonald's doesn't) simply because after the fees, the store would still like to make *some* profit on the sale.

If you can't afford to pay $3 in cash, don't buy.

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