Monday, December 12, 2011

Can Merchants Charge a Fee to Use Debit or Credit as a Form of Payment?

Most places I go they either only take cash or they accept debit/credit cards without a fee. I've noticed some smaller places only accept debit AND they charge a nominal fee of 50 cents to do it. Is this legal? If it is legal, is it within the rules and guidelines of the debit/credit card companies? If its not acceptable to do it, where can I go to report the activity in the State of California.|||There are now laws to prevent the merchant from recouping some of his costs for accepting the credit card. It is probably in violation of his merchant agreement with Visa and MasterCard. You can report them, but don't expect to see any changes. You won't get a refund.





Either use cash at these places or don't shop there.|||The merchants get charged a fee for each debit / credit transaction they process, they are just passing this fee along to the customer.





There would be no state statute making this illegal.


There may be a clause in their merchant account agreement. But since there are hundreds of difference merchant processing companies and each has their own contracts, there would be no way to know if the merchant you are going to is breaking their contract. There is no way for you to even know who their merchant processor is.|||I have seen this question a lot lately. And, it seems the question always comes from someone on CA. Whether it is legal or not, I have no idea. You can probably contact your states Attorney Generals office and they might be able to steer you in the right direction, but, it seems more small businesses are passing these debit or merchant fees onto customers. Times are tough!|||Of course it is legal.


The bank charges small establishments for the card processing service.


How would you feel if some idiot came in and insisted on making a $1.50 purchase with a card but the bank charged $1.50 for the transaction? You've made nothing on the sale|||Yes, it is legal. Merchants have to pay the credit card company per transaction %26amp; they are passing the cost on to you. That is why many require a minimum purchase amount, like $10, to use a card.

No comments:

Post a Comment