Credit Card Minimums - aren't they illegal?

[CRXican]

ths simple soultion would be to drink more and stop whinning

 

[PingSpike]

Quite simply, they are trying to have their cake and eat it too here.

People spend more money with credit cards then they do without, thus the business gets additional revenue thanks to having credit payments available. This typically makes up the difference lost from the percentage of every purchase that is taken by the CC company. This is a perfectly fair arrangement IMO since people can spend money at your store that they do not have on them, or currently do not have period...and you get paid for real. The cc company has to pick up the liability on the other end.

I'd report their ass, its quite simply bullsh|t and if linebackers post is any indication, its also 100% against the merchant rules.

 

[Bullhonkie]

Unfortunately even reporting merchants that violate these agreements repeatedly may not result in any kind of action from Visa/MC.

My local newspaper has a consumer action column and this has been a recurring issue for months. Quite a few people have written back after learning how to report a merchant charging fees or minimums, saying that no action had been taken against the merchant, and that they were still doing the fees and/or minimums thing.

My guess is it's one of those things that are technically against the agreements, but is enforced so rarely that merchants feel like nothing will happen to them and continue to charge fees/have minimums anyway.

 

[Vegito]

http://www.thecreditreportsite.com/credit_cards.asp#myth

http://www.creditinfocenter.com/cards/crcd_buy.shtml#Question5

http://www.gofso.com/Premium/LE/06_le_ic/fg/fg-merchants.html#B


In NYC, it was once legal to impose a minimum as long as you have it posted at the counter while checking out.. not sure if that has changed yet..
http://www.nyc.gov/html/dca/html/laws.html#credit

 

[OfficeLinebacker]

The point is to get them to take the credit card, right? So just point out to them that it is against their agreement with VISA/MC, and if they still don't take your card, have a form letter handy that you can print out...contacting people in writing always gets a better response than a simle phone call.

 

[Legendary]

Originally posted by: OfficeLinebacker
The point is to get them to take the credit card, right? So just point out to them that it is against their agreement with VISA/MC, and if they still don't take your card, have a form letter handy that you can print out...contacting people in writing always gets a better response than a simle phone call.

Exactly - the easiest way to get this fixed is to try to pay with CC below the minimum again. When they don't accept it, ask them for their business card and their manager. Tell the manager he's in violation of their Visa/MC merchant agreement, and that you will be reporting them to the local Visa/MC office to get their merchant license revoked unless they fix it immediately.