Thread: is it legal to have credit card minimums?

Originally Posted by fffresh

magyar1045-

You're right that some stations charge more for credit card use, but the honest truth is credit cards actually make it a little cheaper for them. There's been studies done on this. The reason is back in the all-cash days, there's a lot that goes with dealing with currency. It doesn't show up all in neat numbers on computer like credit cards do for merchants. Instead business would need to count dollars and coins, deal with more runs to the bank, and then have someone do the accounting for the cash. All of these things take time and that's time they have to pay an employee, and that would be more than 2% of the budget. Yes it does hurt a lot of smaller transactions but it does simplify accounting and studies have shown it's pretty much an even trade. Gas stations shouldn't penalize us, the consumers, for these payment methods.

What you are describing is commonly called "overhead" - which every business has, otherwise they wouldn't be in business. What I was getting at is that in these times of high gasoline prices, of course hell will freeze over before that happens, banks/credit card companies should be prohibited from collecting fees from gas station oprators who submit credit card charges.

i'm not sure if it would do any good to stop the credit card fees for gas. i mean in theory i'd be all for it but i don't think the gas stations would adjusts their prices to reflect it. if the government is going to help us i think the best way will be for them to help us directly because they already give the oil companies in this country over billions in tax breaks and that generosity hasn't trickled down to the customer at all. i hate how they blame the market for the prices. they control the 'product' throughout the entire process so they could sell it for any amount above their overhead they want, yet still make a profit. but they don't.

I was at the doctors yesterday and they have credit card logos all over everything for payment methods accepted and then when I went to pay they said they only accept credit cards if you have to pay more than $80. WTF. Then I realized I got screwed by a hospital in 2005 when I had to pay my bill with a credit card and they tacked on some 'credit card processing fee' of 2.35% or something on top of the thousands I was already paying.

Businesses need to start being professional and grow up. Time to realize that there's overhead in all businesses and you can't charge the buyer additionally for it. Do you see McDonald's charging us a 'billboard fee' of 2.35% for all the stupid billboards they have up? No because those costs are built into their pricing. Other businesses need to learn how to do the same thing.

The drycleaners REFUSED FOR THE SECOND TIME to accept my Visa card for an amount less than $15. Second time I've had to get into it with her for this. It's not all the processing fees that is the problem the reason they wasn’t tax is so the can avoid paying income taxes on it and pretend they never received it. What I HATE is places that do this and they have the nerve to charge sales tax too on your purchase. I had a friend that had a convenience store and they would skim over 40% under the table yet they were charging everyone sales tax on everything.

Originally Posted by Cucumber

The drycleaners REFUSED FOR THE SECOND TIME to accept my Visa card for an amount less than $15. Second time I've had to get into it with her for this. It's not all the processing fees that is the problem the reason they wasn’t tax is so the can avoid paying income taxes on it and pretend they never received it. What I HATE is places that do this and they have the nerve to charge sales tax too on your purchase. I had a friend that had a convenience store and they would skim over 40% under the table yet they were charging everyone sales tax on everything.

If there's no receipts, that's tax fraud.

YEP i think they're doing it for tax envasion too i mean come on why would they throw a fit over 2 or 3% and lose business by doing that. because they don't want to pay taxes on that moeny. cash they can pretend they never got so they get 100% of it. with credit cards they have to pay income taxes on the profits because there's no way to hide a paper trail like that.

I entirely understand companies denying credit cards below certain amounts. We all always think about 2%-3%. Well unfortunately there are several cards which go up to 3.5%. On top of that there are many rip off merchant companies which charge 6% plus $0.5 and some of the little businesses just can't afford or do not have the knowledge to create a merchant account straight through their bank. On top of that many of the merchant services do not have daily pay outs and hold the funds up to 2 weeks. Bills need to be paid if you talk about a small or a big business. If they have to wait for each snickers they sell they will be in debt before anything else.

Also their are several countries in Asia and other Continents which add the credit card fee on top of your bill.