Credit and debit card surcharges to be banned

chillidoggy · July 2017

Finally a stop to the odious practice. I wouldn't mind if they passed on what it actually cost to process the transaction, but they've been milking it big-time for ages.

That said, sellers will probably just stick the price up to compensate anyway, so you think you're no longer paying the surcharge.

Legionreturns · July 2017

I'd like to see an end to the practice of adding booking fees, card service charges and ten times the price of a stamp for postage on gig tickets too. The prices are already exorbitant but the true cost can be anything up to £25 more than the ticket price alone. If I've bought a ticket, why do I need a booking fee?!

CabbageCat · July 2017

If businesses have overheads then their prices are set to accommodate them. At least when there is a specific surcharge you can see what you're paying for (and can avoid it for credit card surcharges by using a card that doesn't incur them).

darthed1981 · July 2017

Yeah, there is no reason whatsoever why something can't be sold at the price it is, and that's that.

Marketing wise, the whole idea is to have you psychologically commit to the purchase and then add a bit of margin later, what's an extra £2.50 just for the seller on an £80 ticket? It's profit you are obtaining through marketing trickery, and it isn't fair business.

Business and commerce can be both, fair, equitable and the very best way to connect customers with products and services, but "hidden charges" can get to f**k.

Guitar_Slinger · July 2017

Yeah. Barcelona from £4.99! Plus bag charge, plus pick a seat charge, plus CC charge. That's ten times more than the price. As well as the misleading use of the the word "from" in adverts, I'd like two others to be banned ... "just" and "only".

Mobile phone "just" £45 a month (£2,160 over 48 months). Buy a car for "only" £11,995 (car shown 1.4 turbo model with all the good stuff, £24,995).

57Deluxe · July 2017

Ryan Air will be in a total spin on its repricing now then...

Legionreturns · July 2017

Guitar_Slinger said:

Buy a car for "only" £11,995 (car shown 1.4 turbo model with all the good stuff, £24,995).

Volvo have a naughty practice at the moment. You can't just buy certain safety features. You have to buy upgrade packsthat include all sorts of other crap and they've split the safety stuff across several "packs" meaning to get the whole lot you have to upgrade everything.

HAL9000 · July 2017

Me: Four theatre tickets please

Booking office: That'll be £200 please. Oh, and £7.50 handling fee please.

Me: So that's £207.50 then?

Booking office: No, £7.50 handling per ticket so £230 please.

Me: OK, can I have them in four separate envelopes then?

Booking office: Oh no Sir, we can't do that.

chillidoggy · July 2017

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the gig-ticket scandal. I seem to recall paying £2.50 for the privilege of being e-mailed my tickets, or something like that.

John_A · July 2017

Parked my car in Manchester yesterday and used the phone pay thing as I didn't have any change, it was an automated system that took nearly 15 minutes of entering card numbers and registration details, and then entering them again to confirm. After 15 minutes of pissing about I was then charged a 50p 'convenience fee'

gavin_axecaster · July 2017

That winds me up no end - I have to pay £2.50 for an automated system to email me my ticket then I have to print it out using my own ink and paper? Cheeky buggers.

Legionreturns · July 2017

chillidoggy said:

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about the gig-ticket scandal. I seem to recall paying £2.50 for the privilege of being e-mailed my tickets, or something like that.

Can't remember which venue, but I once got charged £5 for the privilege of picking up my tickets in person! It's pure criminality.

boogieman · July 2017

CabbageCat said:

If businesses have overheads then their prices are set to accommodate them. At least when there is a specific surcharge you can see what you're paying for (and can avoid it for credit card surcharges by using a card that doesn't incur them).

Which is fine, except some companies charge to use every sort of card. We booked a holiday recently and they charged 2% for c/c, but also £2.50 for using debit cards. This is just taking the piss. I know companies get hit with a fee for c/c but I'm sure the banks don't charge them anything for handling a debit card.

Bridgehouse · July 2017

boogieman said:

CabbageCat said:

If businesses have overheads then their prices are set to accommodate them. At least when there is a specific surcharge you can see what you're paying for (and can avoid it for credit card surcharges by using a card that doesn't incur them).

Which is fine, except some companies charge to use every sort of card. We booked a holiday recently and they charged 2% for c/c, but also £2.50 for using debit cards. This is just taking the piss. I know companies get hit with a fee for c/c but I'm sure the banks don't charge them anything for handling a debit card.

Business bank accounts aren't like consumer ones. I get charged for everything - paying cheques and cash in, card transactions, the lot. Actually, I don't get charged for direct transfers...

crunchman · July 2017

In general it's a good thing, but it will make life harder for small businesses with limited turnover. The big companies don't pay a lot for card transactions, but for small companies I think it can be 2 or 3% per transaction.

Booking fees on tickets is a much bigger issue for me.

darthed1981 · July 2017

crunchman said:

In general it's a good thing, but it will make life harder for small businesses with limited turnover. The big companies don't pay a lot for card transactions, but for small companies I think it can be 2 or 3% per transaction.

Booking fees on tickets is a much bigger issue for me.

I don't think anyone has a problem with paying the bit extra, it is whacking the charge on at the end that feels naughty?

Unfortunately, the booking fees thing hasn't been banned, though it is, as you say MUCH worse.

benmurray85 · July 2017

crunchman said:

In general it's a good thing, but it will make life harder for small businesses with limited turnover.

I completely agree but as the banks use revenue from business charges to "run" personal accounts the alternative would be to start charging personal customers to hold accounts. Something which I'm sure would be met with more uproar!

CabbageCat · July 2017

boogieman said:

CabbageCat said:

If businesses have overheads then their prices are set to accommodate them. At least when there is a specific surcharge you can see what you're paying for (and can avoid it for credit card surcharges by using a card that doesn't incur them).

Which is fine, except some companies charge to use every sort of card. We booked a holiday recently and they charged 2% for c/c, but also £2.50 for using debit cards. This is just taking the piss. I know companies get hit with a fee for c/c but I'm sure the banks don't charge them anything for handling a debit card.

I think the point is not that some companies do charge for all cards but that some companies don't...but now implicitly will. I can't complain though, it'll make the payment software I work with less complicated.

CabbageCat · July 2017

Bridgehouse said:

boogieman said:

CabbageCat said:

If businesses have overheads then their prices are set to accommodate them. At least when there is a specific surcharge you can see what you're paying for (and can avoid it for credit card surcharges by using a card that doesn't incur them).

Which is fine, except some companies charge to use every sort of card. We booked a holiday recently and they charged 2% for c/c, but also £2.50 for using debit cards. This is just taking the piss. I know companies get hit with a fee for c/c but I'm sure the banks don't charge them anything for handling a debit card.

Business bank accounts aren't like consumer ones. I get charged for everything - paying cheques and cash in, card transactions, the lot. Actually, I don't get charged for direct transfers...

Yeah, the small company that runs events I go to doesn't charge surcharges but has a little begging message on the payment screen asking people to use bank transfers. It makes the admin a little harder for them to marry up payments with bookings but it's worth it.

scrumhalf · July 2017

Credit card charges are a rip-off and in no way reflect the cost of doing husiness.

Let's go back to the old days, when most people didn't use them.
1) Time taken for customer to write cheque out prevents staff from dealing with other customers.
2) Time taken to note down cheque guarantee card details prevents staff from dealing with other customers.
3) Cashing up at the end of the day becomes more complex with the need to count loads more cash and cheques
4) Time taken to write out cheque deposit slips before banking takes up employee time.
5) Going to the bank to pay in cash and cheques takes up employee time.
6) Insurance costs for having cash on the premses.

Compared to this the current system of swiping a card - it's just shafting the consumers.

DiscoStu · July 2017

I heard on the news that Paypal fees are also included in this shake up.

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Credit and debit card surcharges to be banned

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