Debit card minimum fee

JustinB said:
Price discrimination on card purchases is also wrong, but stores such as PC Zone get away with it by rephrasing it as a "cash discount". I don't see the difference in this scenario, the store is imposing a minimum value for all sales, and waiving it for cash.

Taking it to another level, some stores offer (or used to) 6 months interest free. BUT the cost of that credit was actually built into the price of the goods, disincentivising people using cash.

The small business could build the costs of having an acquiring device into his base prices, but that'd make him less competitive. He could also offer the "cash discount"...?
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I've also seen this, but offering "cash discounts" is clearly against the terms and conditions of Mastercard and Visa too. You cannot offer different prices for different payment methods.

By the way, paying by debit or credit card is the same as paying by cash. A non-cash payment is any payment on finance or terms.
 
deweyzeph said:
I've also seen this, but offering "cash discounts" is clearly against the terms and conditions of Mastercard and Visa too. You cannot offer different prices for different payment methods.

By the way, paying by debit or credit card is the same as paying by cash. A non-cash payment is any payment on finance or terms.
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The cash discount offered by PC Zone is definitely referring to cash as a payment mechanism. I understand your comment though.

My point is, and remains, while the cash discount or minimum transaction value may be wrong, but if the alternative is to raise prices to meet these costs, or getting rid of the POS device, then I'd rather have the cash discount or minimum transaction value.
 
bwana said:
It sure does
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There it is - thanks will be printing that out to show vendors and hopefully be able to pay with my card...

UnUnOctium said:
Weird. Never had such an issue either though I will admit that I use it only for purchases above ~R250 as paying less would cost me more than drawing the cash in fees.
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Well the reason I prefer to use my card is that all POS transactions on my card are free. There is a monthly rate of R19 or something and then all POS transactions are free of charge.
Also it's much safer walking around with a piece of plastic than cash don't you think?
 
If a merchant can't afford the transaction fees for processing credit or debit cards then they shouldn't offer the option to their customers. It's really not the customers problem.
 
So if I print out that clause in the MasterCard rules and regulations pdf, how do I make sure first that the shop uses a MasterCard machine or are they all MasterCard?
 
JustinB said:
Merchants are charged commission on both debit and credit cards. Debit cards is lower. There are other reasons though - for example, a debit card is an online card, every purchase you make requires a dial-up to verify details. If this dial-up occurs on a good old 56k modem, then the merchant is getting charged a nice telkom fee and a bank commission fee all for the nice R2 profit he just made on the coffee you just bought.
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Very true and if the store does enough transactions then they would anyway be using a GPRS modem instead and that reduces the cost per transaction to commission (2-3%) and 5c connection fee.

I constantly review my wifes credit card transactions to see if we need to switch to the GPRS system
 
deweyzeph said:
If a merchant can't afford the transaction fees for processing credit or debit cards then they shouldn't offer the option to their customers. It's really not the customers problem.
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Balancing a business' finances is an art these days. If you do not offer it you loose big customers, if you do offer it the little fry eat away at your profits.

I do not have figures with me now, but last I heard Capitec SpeedPoint was the most reasonable with ABSA and STD SpeedPoint being the most expensive?
 
d7e7r7 said:
So if I print out that clause in the MasterCard rules and regulations pdf, how do I make sure first that the shop uses a MasterCard machine or are they all MasterCard?
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If they accept your Mastercard the rules apply ;)
 
deweyzeph said:
If someone complains to Visa or Mastercard you risk losing your merchant account. What you are doing is wrong.
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I have done this for years with no complaints from customers or FNB.
Would you then prefer the R50 minimum sale to be enforced whether you paid by credit card or not?
 
Ianf1 said:
I have done this for years with no complaints from customers or FNB.
Would you then prefer the R50 minimum sale to be enforced whether you paid by credit card or not?
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No I would prefer it if you abided by the Mastercard rules, and if I visited your shop I would complain! But I'm like that :D
 
Have just emailed FNB and Mastercard US to find out who we could report offending merchants to...
 
d7e7r7 said:
Have just emailed FNB and Mastercard US to find out who we could report offending merchants to...
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Don't bother with FNB, they don't care. Go STRAIGHT to Mastercard International and they will forward your query to Mastercard ZA and deal with it. You can email them at [email protected], with a subject of "Merchant Violations"

Have fun :D
 
mister said:
Don't bother with FNB, they don't care. Go STRAIGHT to Mastercard International and they will forward your query to Mastercard ZA and deal with it. You can email them at [email protected], with a subject of "Merchant Violations"

Have fun :D
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Yeah that's the email address I used... :D
Will update when/if I hear back from them...
 
d7e7r7 said:
Yeah that's the email address I used... :D
Will update when/if I hear back from them...
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If you happen to hear back from Renee in JHB, she is AWESOME! She'll sort the merchant out ONETIME :)
 
d7e7r7 said:
Have just emailed FNB and Mastercard US to find out who we could report offending merchants to...
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Would be great to get back feedback on this. I am glad you guys can see both sides of the situation.
 
deweyzeph said:
I've never seen a merchant who accepts Visa but not Mastercard, or vice versa. They always accept them together.
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Heh, I had this when I went to Mozambique in about 2006, nowhere that we went to outside of Maputo took Mastercard if they took cards at all. So, by the time we got back to Maputo, my I owed my friend who did have a Visa card, a bit. Made up for it in Maputo where they did take Mastercard or I could draw cash (but trying to work out how many millions meant anything left me only doing THAT once).

I get annoyed by merchants with speedpoints that do not accept cards below a certain amount, as using my debit card like this doesn't cost me anything. I either would just forgo the purchase, or draw the cash and pay, but either way would never return to that merchant (putting a sign up stating a minimum purchasing amount is actually helpful, even if it's against Visa/Mastercard's conditions, as then I can decide immediately whether to stay or go, or draw the cash). I don't mind those that don't have a speedpoint at all, but rarely have encountered a merchant like this in SA.

B
 
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