Credit Card Minimum Amount Restriction

[Liv]

Credit Card Minimum Amount Restriction

It's lunch time in the real world, at the real job. Rather than eat, I decided to take a stroll up through the shopping center my job is located in. I stopped into one of the little convenience shops for a soda, and decided to put the drink on my ATM / DEBIT Visa Card. As I handed the clerk who was of middle eastern descent my card, he looked curiously at me, and then pointed to a piece of paper taped to the counter. It read "Minimum purchase $5.00 for credit card purchases." This is when I think, "why me?" Actually I'm thinking, I could stand here and argue with this guy, who more than likely would give me a dumbfounded look and probably curse me out in his ethnic language before he'd sell me a soda on a credit card. But the truth of the matter is he'd be wrong. What I ended up doing was picking up a couple of other things and complying with this Pepsi terrorist's demands.

The truth of the matter is I used to work for a credit card processing company, so I happen to know a little about the rules. The company called Card Service International was purchased by the monolith First Data Corporation back when they were expanding from a small garage business into a massive Simi-Valley company. As a part of the company training, this was one of the first questions that arose from us credit account managers during the class. The answer is that it is 100% against the bylaws of both Visa & MasterCard to require a minimum amount before a merchant can run a credit card. It's written in their contract they sign when they apply to become credit card processing merchants. Now they can do whatever they want on the ATM portion of the card, but if the transaction is ran through as a credit card there can be no minimum.

But when is the last time anyone in America has read their contracts?

[Robert]

My response:

"So, you'd rather me leave the Burpsi on the counter, buy nothing, never come back here, AND report you to Visa/Mastercard, than let me pay for it?"

[JQPublic]

Congradulations Liv I now consider you an immigrant.

[Liv]

Oh I know about the fees. I know thats why they do it, but unfortunately it is against the visa bylaws, and if they want to increase their business by accepting the credit cards then they have to accept the fact on some smaller transactions they will lose money.

[STOREOWNER]

credit card company charge merchant at least $0.25 on each trasaction

Liv, if you are in my store, i would rather treat you a soda for free because you dont' have any cash.

i do feel sorry when people pull out a credit card for buying a $0.50 soda when they have a bunch bill in the wallet.

few months ago, i saw a guy using credit card paid for a $0.37 stamp in the post office. now our first class stamp is $0.42.

visa company got IPO, we spend more and more money on merchandise. why?

i hope you understand my ethnic english

[Liv]

I understand the reason merchants do it (I use to work for First Data) but it's still against the Visa and M/C bylaws that are agreed to by the merchant. You'd not believe the amount of people who do try to charge a minimum amount, and when I contest it, they generally get quite defensive. I wish there was a 800 number to report them personally, not to hurt them but to educate them. I'm sorry they may take a loss, but the premise behind taking credit cards is that it will increase your business. If you in general don't make more money accepting (the most popular) form of payment then don't take credit cards in the first place.

[The Rain King]

There's also something to be said for carrying a minimum amount of cash to make small purchases. I was in the H-P Public Library one Saturday morning reading magazines, and overheard a conversation at the call-in desk. A well-dressed man and his (approx.) ten year old daughter were picking up a book that had been held in reserve for the daughter. The library worker informed the man that he owed thirty cents in late fees and she couldn't let him have the book until it was paid. He became somewhat irate because he had no cash whatsoever and the worker wasn't allowed to accept any type of "card' to pay for fees. The guy even turned to his ten year old and asked if she had any money with her. She didn't.

I stepped up and paid for the guy, even though I thought him a jerk, for the sake of the kid. But I must admit I was thinking "You don't have thirty lousy cents in your pocket !? "

Sorry, but I do think a little common sense applies here.

[Liv]

I rarely carry cash on me. (Generally because I spend it)

I'm very much a credit card person, and I do expect if you have a visa or m/c logo that you will take my card for whatever transaction.

[A Person]

All that will happen if you report people is that they will stop taking credit card purchases altogether or go out of business.

Those people are barely scraping by and you want to enforce the rulebook on them and give whatever small profit they were likely to make on the deal to Visa?

Yea - Go Visa, screw the little guy.

Shame on you. Keep your credit card for purchases of at least $20.

[Liv]

In another thread we're talking about knowing the rules of the game.... According to those thoughts, the merchants know the rules of the game ahead of time (or should by reading the literature) and should abide by those rules, right?

[A Person]

So is Hillary analogous to Visa or the owner of the convenience store?

Yes Visa has their contract, they are within their rights to enforce it and you are within your rights to snitch on the store owner.

This will result in one of the following: The price of a coke will go up, the store owner will stop taking Visa or will go out of business. None of these outcomes is particularly desirable, even for you as a customer, and I'm a bit surprised that you take the side of Mega-Corp over Little Guy.

I too know the terms of the contracts and they're entirely to the benefit of Visa. I can see and empathise with the predicament of the store owner and so I will choose not to act as an unpaid Visa contract enforcer and use cash or debit card for small transactions.

[Liv]

My understanding from my time in the business and it's been about 10 years so things have changed, but.... As I was leaving if your business was in good standing (credit wise) minimum transaction amounts would only come into place after above such amount (1 dollar, 5 dollar, etc...) I happened to work for the division of First Data (Card Service International) which appealed to those merchants with less than favorable credit. You pay a premium for the service.

Plus this is just good business sense. We're in the middle of establishing another business and eventually we will take credit as apart of expanding our customer base. I would never tell a customer no to their credit card because of a smidgen of a little charge. Their happiness or discontent might make or break who and what they tell about your business and reputation is priceless in my opinion.

And while Credit Card Transaction companies do sock it too the merchants.... sometimes more than I liked when I worked for them, I've always felt the per transaction fee was fair and prudent. I know in my personal shopping, often the choices I make are dictated by my ability to transact via credit or debit.

[Liv]

Well this is interesting. Verizon attempting a $2.00 fee. Which means they should make tons of cash above and beyond the transaction fee of processing the charges.

Should be, as I remember the terms of service, be completely against the Visa/MC agreement unless it's changed. They could provide a discount to people using alternative form of payment, but a convenience fee is just charged a fee for using the car which when I worked in the industry, against TOS.

Someone needs to take them to court.