Credit Card Minimum Purchase

Local Davis merchants generally accept credit cards or Visa/Master Card network debt cards. Some of these merchants set conditions on transactions with these cards that are not allowed for either contractual reasons or violations of California civil code. These conditions are fairly common despite their not being allowed. The two most common are:

• Charging a fee, which is a violation of California civil code.
  

• Minimum purchase limit, which is a violation of the merchant contract with the credit card network.

Charging fees are sometimes confused with an authorization hold, which is temporary. They show up, especially on your internet statement, but if you look carefully, you'll notice that they don't actually apply against your available balance. They also disappear about two days or so later (sometimes a few days). They are how restaurants (and other service places) can run your card and then add a tip later without having to ask for your card again. It's a standard credit card thing (or debit card used as a credit card). This is standard and it has nothing to do with a scam or anything underhanded.

Surcharges are prohibited in the state of California. Existing law provides that no retailer may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by other means. The retailer may, however, offer discounts for the purpose of encouraging payment by cash.

Civil Code Sec. 1748.1:
(a)No retailer in any sales, service, or lease transaction with a consumer may impose a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card in lieu of payment by cash, check, or similar means. A retailer may, however, offer discounts for the purpose of inducing payment by cash, check, or other means not involving the use of a credit card, provided that the discount is offered to all prospective buyers.

(b) Any retailer who willfully violates this section by imposing a surcharge on a cardholder who elects to use a credit card and who fails to pay that amount to the cardholder within 30 days of a written demand by the cardholder to the retailer by certified mail, shall be liable to the cardholder for three times the amount at which actual damages are assessed. The cardholder shall also be entitled to recover reasonable attorney's fees and costs incurred in the action.

• 2k Thai Food — $0.50 charge on credit card purchases under $15
  

• Aggie Liquor — $0.50 charge on credit card purchases under $10
  

• Delta of Venus — $0.25 charge on all credit card purchases
  

• Fluffy Donuts — $0.69 charge on all credit card purchases
  

• Hometown Chinese Food — $0.25 on all ATM/Debit transactions
  

• Newsbeat — $0.45 on all ATM/Debit transactions
  

• Village Bakery — $0.50 charge on credit card purchases under $10

Tons of places charge you "processing charges" or set minimum purchase limits on credit card purchases. However, these rules are expressly against both VISA and MasterCard's terms of service with the merchant, and usually conflict with the American Express terms, as well. Please note this only applies to credit card purchases. American Express has no explicit policy regarding charges, but they have a policy against "discrimination" against their card, so if a merchant has no service charge for VISA and Mastercard, they cannot have a charge for American Express.

Typically, the merchants who do this are smaller, as the charges from the credit card companies impact them more than they impact a larger-volume business.

• VISA's FAQ that mentions it, and also gives instructions for reporting the merchant to VISA.
  

• Merchant card abuses information

• CoHo/ASS — $1
  

• Posh Bagel — $3
  

• A Better Place to Bead — $4
  

• Sunrise Restaurant — $5
  

• Taqueria Davis — $5
  

• Ding How — $10
  

• Kim's Mart — $10
  

• Orange Hut — $10
  

• Redrum Burger — $10 (or $0.99 charge)
  

• Village Bakery — $10
  

• Jusco — $15
  

• Zia's Delicatessen — Varies, sometimes not enforced
  

• SPCA Thrift Store —$5

Comments:

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• I say we put them all on notice. -ES

• Food for thought - Would you rather they didn't break Visa's rules, and instead didn't accept Visa? It's simply not worth the retailer to pay Visa $.50 a purchase of a $1 bagel. I don't blame the retailers, credit companies are using their leverage to charge more and screw them over. Especially rewards cards. People don't realize it's not AmEx that's paying for your airline miles, it's the downtown shop you used the card at that is paying more. -PeterAnselmo
  

• That's a decision they need to make. If they decide to accept credit cards, than thats a contract they must accept. They don't have to be "screwed" over at all, as they choose to accept the terms. If they don't want to pay the fee, then don't accept credit cards and see if your business fairs better with only cash/check (personally, I doubt it in most cases). You can't pick and choose! I can understand trying to make a "minimum" even if it's against the rules, and I'm fine with that at most places, but to add a surcharge is doubly wrong. They can't have it both ways. -ES
  

• If they are paying $.50 per $1 they seriously need to look into a new credit card processor. That'd be like 45 cents per transaction and a 5% processing fee. I've never dealt with credit card processing in a place that does a lot of small transactions, but I know there are agreements better suited to them. If merchant fees are a problem, then they could just raise the price (enough to cover the processing fee) and offer a discount for cash. -BradBenedict
  

• Yes, Peter, I'd rather that they not accept credit cards if they can't afford to do so, or that the credit card companies change their contract language. Better that than break the rules. Food for thought to you: in Japan, just about no one takes credit cards. It works that way too. —Marnen Laibow-Koser

• Another option is to carry a little cash in your pocket. I feel that forcing a merchant to run a cc transaction on a $3.00 purchase is bordering on rude. The merchants really don't have a choice about whether or not to take plastic. Most of them must to stay in business. Rather than get all legalistic and threatening, the mannerly thing to do is to hit the ATM periodically and use the real thing for purchases under $10. The merchants will appreciate it, and you'll be sticking it to the big bank plastic man. -JimStewart
  

• I buy one-dollar sweet teas from my local McDonalds on plastic all the time. I doubt they care, being McDonalds, but I have often wished the cashier *would* take issue. My response would be, if your one-dollar sweet tea actually cost a buck, I would pay in cash every time. The fact that it actually costs 1.08 USD is offensive and annoying. In a lot of places in Europe, Germany in particular, vendors won't do business in pennies. Anything smaller than a 0.20 EUR peice gets rounded off, whether its to your loss or theirs, though this rounding is rarely required as prices are almost always set at an integer amount. And guess what? If the price on the menu says 3 EUR, you actually *pay* 3 EUR. If cash worked like that in the United States, I'd be a lot more happy to deal with it. ~~~~

• I am creating a central clearinghouse for this sort of information. Right now it's at http://minimumpurchase.livejournal.com , but I'm creating a more sophisticated site. Come on over and name names! :) —Marnen Laibow-Koser

• Just curious, Marnen — why don't you just carry $10 with you?
  

• Who said I don't? In fact, I often do. But by the terms of MasterCard's and Visa's rules, I shouldn't be expected to do so.
  

• What is your goal in "outing" merchants who do this?
  

• They are breaking the agreements they signed with the credit card companies, and losing customer goodwill in the process. In other words, they are dishonest and provide poor customer service in these respects, and they should be identified as such and reported.
  

• I don't charge a minimum, but I certainly sympathize with the ones who do. It must be very frustrating losing 5 - 10% on a $5 sale, when that probably eliminates the net profit on that sale. Merchants pay .25 - .50 per transaction, plus a 1 - 5% "discount rate". Small businesses have zero bargaining power when it comes to these fees and rates, as there are only a few card processing companies to work with and they all use the same rate structure.
  

• I certainly sympathize with the problem of losing money on small transactions — and in fact, I try not to charge small amounts for that very reason — but the rules are the rules, and must be enforced. If this is too onerous for the merchants, then they can certainly choose not to take credit cards — I know of many businesses that have done just that. Heck, if enough businesses do do that, market forces may come into play and some acquirer or card company may figure out how to make their terms more favorable to merchants. But the current practice of imposing restrictions in violation of signed contracts is completely inexcusable.
  

• Looks like we've got ourselves a saint here! Whatever would we do without these kind souls to save us from these evil peddlers?
  

• The rate we pay is based on our average ticket and our monthly sales totals. Sales by credit card have increased to the point that they are the overwhelming majority of a typical retailer's transactions. Credit card companies are not going to change their contracts. Although the cost to them has gone down due to electronic efficiencies, the rates charged to retailers have continued to go up. Why? Because they can get away with it. Senate hearings have investigated collusion among the major credit card providers, but that is very hard to prove and they know that every retailer feels compelled to accept plastic. Many of the items sold at the stores you have listed are relatively low profit margin. If you continue to use credit cards for low-dollar purchases, the merchants will have to raise the prices for everyone to cover the lost profits caused by your usage.
  

• I'm OK with that, since I think it will only be a question of a few cents. It's a small price to pay for actually enforcing the existing rules. —Marnen Laibow-Koser
  

• So just do everyone a favor and carry some cash.—DonShor
  

• but similarly to the fact that it the small business has no leverage in bargaining, the small business can also get away with a minimum because it isnt worth visa's time to go after them. —MattHh
  

• Plain and simple - the rules are the rules. Charging a surcharge because a person doesn't purchase a minimum of $10 is a violation of the rules set forth to all merchants by Visa and MasterCard. These businesses should lose their priviledge to accept credit cards altogether. I am personally a merchant. The average purchase at my restaurant is $9.02. No, I don't charge my customers a surcharge because "That is wrong". —Roy-Pope