Bank Card Charges....

[Craftypig]

I went to a local corner shop recently but didn't have cash so Ipaid by card, the shopkeeper told me there would be an surcharge of £1 because I spent less than a tenner. I thought that the government had outlawed these kind of charges recently, am I wrong?

[emmie]

i believe they can and do charge you, had the same problem with a number of our local shops, so don't shop there now. I am not sure the legalities but suggest you take it up with trading standards...

[ummmm]

My shop is a min of £5 or the charge is 50p.

I think they can charge want they want as long as they make it clear.

You have the option of not shopping there.

They have bank charges to pay. Transaction are not free.

[albaqwerty]

My local shop charges 30p irrespective of amount purchased.

Small shops cannot always absorb their bank charges.

[Old_Geezer]

I would not continue to shop at a place I was a regular if they made a surcharge. That said I'd not have the cheek to pay small amounts by card anyway. I can't see when it would be so vital to get a small value item that it justified it.

[ummmm]

Geezer - I assume you don't have teenagers. If I have cash, they talk it out of me.

Horrible little things :-)

[FredPuli43]

Airlines do it so shops may do it. The government, or the EU, put a restriction on the amount that could be charged.

[mccfluff]

for every card transaction there is a fee to pay, smaller shops may not be able to absorb these costs, they're not cheap.

[ck1]

I looked at renting a card machine to sell stuff at an exhibition recently, apart from the costs of the machine, the transaction charges that the banks add to the service are pretty high so can be quite significant on small value purchases. What I really dislike is being charged £2.50 to use an ATM

[gingejbee]

I'm with the shops on this one. Anybody who makes these small purchases using plastic deserves to be charged.
To ck1- you need to change the ATMs you use. I've never paid a fee to get cash from one.