Minimum card purchase amount?

chrisc4290 said:
My Capitec debit card does not charge a fee for swipe purchases, but the merchant will have to pay a discount, so I suppose its up to him. It also may vary from cashier to cashier
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Ianf1 said:
My understanding is you can have a minimum sale amount of say R50 which is waived for cash sales. The hidden costs is what necessitates this with the terminal "phoning" in for authorisation this costs money and time.
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Its % based, not flat rate and any store still using a landline to dial out is retarded (only other cost I can think of). We use a GSM modem on our machine and we get the first 500 transactions free, after that its 2-5c a transaction. Our machine and GSM modems cost us R400 per month and we just absorb it as the cost of doing business.

Also banks not only charge us to deposit cash, but our insurance nails us if we are insured for too much cash. In our small business we prefer cards even if your paying R2.50

(Funny enough my wife and I were talking about this topic this morning and we agree never to set a floor limit, bad for customer service).
 
reactor_sa said:
I can understand credit cards, but debit cards don't incur the same fees.
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I might be under correction but I think we pay 2.5% for credit cards and 1.75% for debit cards with Capitec. Standard W@nkkers use to charges us +5% and then only wanted to match Capitec when we told them fetch their machine.
 
<necro>

I encountered this tonight at an Engen quick shop with a minimum of R20. I was properly surprised as it is one of those woolies engens too. Like I understand a mom and pops store but a national franchise? Worth contacting engen head office over this? A sign at least would be nice.
 
ChocolateBadger said:
<necro>

I encountered this tonight at an Engen quick shop with a minimum of R20. I was properly surprised as it is one of those woolies engens too. Like I understand a mom and pops store but a national franchise? Worth contacting engen head office over this? A sign at least would be nice.
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Yeah see visa merchant manual post by someone above.

That said...SA things are still OK. UK side they tend to enforce 5gbp or slap a surcharge on for some cards (like 8zar surcharge). That sucks way more
 
I very seldom shop at a place if I can't use my card. Went to Marietjie's Pub in Baardskeerdersbos toe drink a few cold ones, and ended up having 3 fcking beers because they don't have card facilities :( Tsek
 
Had this same issue at a local supermarket (not a chain branded one), I wanted to buy a loaf of bread, which was already overpriced by R3 compared to Checkers etc. The lady told me they won't swipe for under R20. I asked her where the sign was that said this, she said there wasn't, clicked her tongue and swiped my card.

Couple days later I stopped at the same place, different cashier, she said the same thing. I asked her to call her manager. He came, said something in their own language, and the cashier swiped my card.

Since then, I've stopped there for bread quite a few times and I guess they recognize me now, cos they've never given me a problem.

If there was a sign posted, I really don't mind, but if not, I'll insist on them swiping.
 
they are suppose to accept cards for alll transactions, if they put up a sign to say not under RXamount, then visa/mastercard will fine them, and perhaps other penalties.
 
I saw one or two shops in Australia that also had minimum swipe amounts, usually 10dollars. Once at a pharmacy, once at a restaurant at a tourist lookout spot.
 
Venomous said:
they are suppose to accept cards for alll transactions, if they put up a sign to say not under RXamount, then visa/mastercard will fine them, and perhaps other penalties.
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I've swiped for as low as R4 a few times. I don't get charged for swipes but I do get charged for cash withdrawals, so I always swipe and don't keep cash.
 
I understand that for Credit Card purchases there may be a minimum amount imposed due to the merchant paying for the transaction. For Cheque/Debit card purchases, where the buyer pays the transaction fee, there may not be a minimum.

I have reported some merchants when they enforced this and the next time I went there, the minimum was no longer applicable.
 
lcbxx said:
I understand that for Credit Card purchases there may be a minimum amount imposed due to the merchant paying for the transaction. For Cheque/Debit card purchases, where the buyer pays the transaction fee, there may not be a minimum.

I have reported some merchants when they enforced this and the next time I went there, the minimum was no longer applicable.
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My understanding is that the merchant fees are percentage based and not a flat fee, so a 100 x R1 swipes would have the same transactional fee as a single R100 swipe.

The percentage is higher for credit cards than cheque/debit cards.
 
LCBXX said:
I understand that for Credit Card purchases there may be a minimum amount imposed due to the merchant paying for the transaction. For Cheque/Debit card purchases, where the buyer pays the transaction fee, there may not be a minimum.

I have reported some merchants when they enforced this and the next time I went there, the minimum was no longer applicable.
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Where do you report these merchants? It's a pet peve to me when they impose these minimum amounts.
 
Yesyes said:
Where do you report these merchants? It's a pet peve to me when they impose these minimum amounts.
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Not sure you'll get the minimum lifted, however if they charge a different price for credit card then report them to visa/mastercard.

They signed an agreement saying they won't do that so they'll catch hell for it.
 
mister said:
Mastercard: https://www.mastercard.us/en-us/consumers/get-support/report-problem-shopping.html
Visa: https://usa.visa.com/Forms/merchant-violation-complaint-form.html

Report to both... I've had good success with Mastercard - they gave Verimark a hiding
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This is the link "To report merchant checkout problems related to checkout fees, payment card surcharges, minimum purchases amounts, or refusal to accept your Visa card"

https://usa.visa.com/Forms/checkout-fees-form.html
 
Merchant fees are a fixed percentage of the sale. Why should there be any minimum?
 
cbrunsdonza said:
Its % based, not flat rate and any store still using a landline to dial out is retarded (only other cost I can think of). We use a GSM modem on our machine and we get the first 500 transactions free, after that its 2-5c a transaction. Our machine and GSM modems cost us R400 per month and we just absorb it as the cost of doing business.

Also banks not only charge us to deposit cash, but our insurance nails us if we are insured for too much cash. In our small business we prefer cards even if your paying R2.50

(Funny enough my wife and I were talking about this topic this morning and we agree never to set a floor limit, bad for customer service).
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A floor limit is to the benefit of the customer. You set a floor limit of say R100 then all transactions less then R100 does not do online authorisation. So the customer gets a quicker transaction experience
 
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