Financial con?

[AuburnWarrior]

Ladies and Gentleman of this esteemed forum, your advice please.

I've just paid for the balance of our family summer holiday over the phone using my debit card.

I was told that there was a 1.45% surcharge for using my debit card - is this right?

I've had a debit card for twenty years and I've never had to pay a premium to use it before. Credit card - yes but not on a debit card. The funds are moved almost immediately with a debit card so no charges are levied normally.

I've raised a complaint but I wondered whether anyone else has ever been stung with such a charge on a debit card?

 

[medwayjon]

Happens all the time unfortunately

Ryanair were recently exposed for being utter crooks concerning debit card charges.

Unfortunately places can charge this, there is no restriction on it whatsoever.

I charge 1.79% on visa & mastercard credit cards for vehicle sales, no credit card charge on workshop jobs, debit cards are not subject to a charge at all.

 

[freddielong]

Its a big con these companies say they are passing on the bank charges which are much much less

 

[drawboy]

The charge should only apply to credit cards not a debit card, I would complain vigorously

 

[freddielong]

Take them a big wad of cash i bet they wouldn't accept it

 

[Gazp]

Send them a cheque, no charges & they have to wait for their money

 

[Adi2Dassler]

Ladies and Gentleman of this esteemed forum, your advice please.

I've just paid for the balance of our family summer holiday over the phone using my debit card.

I was told that there was a 1.45% surcharge for using my debit card - is this right?

I've had a debit card for twenty years and I've never had to pay a premium to use it before. Credit card - yes but not on a debit card. The funds are moved almost immediately with a debit card so no charges are levied normally.

I've raised a complaint but I wondered whether anyone else has ever been stung with such a charge on a debit card?

I own a travel agency in Edinburgh, and up until the middle of last year, I absorbed the charges I incurred for any debit card transaction but still charged for credit cards.

Then the merchant changed the structure of the debit card charges from a 30p per transaction to a 0.5% of all transactions.So officially I've started to charge 0.5% on debit cards, and 2.5% on credit cards.I know some will boost that figure and 'make' out of it, which is illegal.

Dependant on the cost of holiday/attitude of client/frequency they book, I waive the debit cards, but very rarely the credit card fee's.The margin small independent agencies work on is pitiful and we're only in it to make some coin.

So, if it's a small independent you have used, their buying power is less and the fee usually does have to be applied.If it's a high street multiple, their buying power is much stringer and I doubt they are being charged any thing like 1.5%

Oh, and they will come back and say 'it's not us, it's our merchant services', to which you should ask what % they get charged by their merchant.

 

[chrisd]

I am sure that I read last week that these charges are being looked into by (I believe) the Office Of Fair Trading. I think it's the likes of Ryanair that have conned people so much that others have got in on the act and I hope that they will be curbed.

If I remember, the news report said that the charge for a family of 4 for credit/debit card fees could amount to £40 wheras the banks charge the Company about 40p per transaction!

Bl***y crooks!



Chris

 

[Adi2Dassler]

I am sure that I read last week that these charges are being looked into by (I believe) the Office Of Fair Trading. I think it's the likes of Ryanair that have conned people so much that others have got in on the act and I hope that they will be curbed.

If I remember, the news report said that the charge for a family of 4 for credit/debit card fees could amount to £40 wheras the banks charge the Company about 40p per transaction!

Bl***y crooks!



Chris

again, those charges are probably valid for the likes of Ryanair who can dictate to the banks given the turnover they generate.Smaller firms are dictated to by the banks and absorbing % 's of turnover can be the difference to making a few £ or not.

I'd be all for not being charged and not having to pass it on, but back in the real world that aint gonna happen.

 

[Bacardibatman]

werent rynair charging the credit card fee per seat not per transaction?

i seem to remember seeing/hearing

 

[AuburnWarrior]

Thanks for your comments guys.

It's a fairly large company - lowcostholidays.com so I'd expect them to have some bargaining power with the bank.

I just think that for a transaction where they get their money almost immediately, charging me £13 for the priviledge is an absolute disgrace!

I did tell them that I'd pay them cash - "you can't do that Sir" was the response.

I'll see what they come back with.....

 

[Smiffy]

My company do not allow us to take payment for a car on credit card. Small deposit yes, but full payment is a "no no". If somebody insists that they pay on a cc we will try to enforce a "levy" of a couple of percent to cover charges but if they refused to pay it then we could (could) turn around and refuse to sell them the car (in principle). Not very often we are faced with this to be fair, but it has happened. Would we be prepared to lose a sale because of it? Dunno.
If we take a payment on a debit card there is no charge to the customer.
With more and more companies saying they won't accept cheques, and indeed rumour that cheques will cease to exist in a few years times, charging somebody for a debit card transaction is totally wrong. How else, apart from an armful of cash, are you supposed to pay for a large purchase?

 

[John_Findlay]

....and yet if you pay a large sum over in cash in some circumstances you might be obliged to report it to the police under the Money Laundering Regulations.

Solicitors in Scotland were legally obliged to report clients who gave us more than £10k in cash towards their house purchase when I was in practice. It seems you can't win nowadays. Paying for stuff either isn't free or they question where the money came from. Nightmare.

 

[medwayjon]

J_F, cash for us in our trade is a nightmare.

The auction company only take cash upto £6k and then they charge an admin fee + Vat for us using cash.

When I buy direct from main-dealers they dont want cash either.

I recently had a ding-dong at barclays when I went to pay in some cash, I sold a porsche for £24k that the guy paid for in cash (I had to get proof of where it came from off of him) and when I went to Barclays they interrogated me in a side room and made me fill in forms. I lost my temper and said my account is "Car Sales" not "Drugs & Ho's" yet they still wanted to question me.

Cash is definately no longer king, although trying to explain this fact to punters is ridiculous as they dont get it when I say I would rather take a debit card than a bundle of money.

The other problem is, according to my insurance, If banking anything over £3k, in order to be insured against mugging/robbery, I have to take 2 other people with me to the bank.

 

[John_Findlay]

That's interesting Jon. So I guess there isn't the scope to "hide" a little from the taxman which I'm assuming must have happened in the past in some cash sales?

 

[medwayjon]

TBH the opportunity is there to write-back a vehicle if sold for cash, we just dont choose to do it.

My brothers mother-in-law is high-up in the VAT Fraud department and the penalties dished-out can be huge.

For the sake of saving £50 or so in VAT it isnt worth the risk and blackening of reputation if exposed.

 

[thecraw]

Am I safe carrying my £5.65 cash around with me which is in my pocket?????

 

[AuburnWarrior]

Am I safe carrying my £5.65 cash around with me which is in my pocket?????

Probably not if you're in Stratford, East London.

 

[Imurg]

I can see a time when I need to carry around a portable credit/debit card machine. With cheques dying - quite a lot of my clients don't have chequebooks - I'm sometimes well worth mugging if 2 or 3 of them have paid up front for a course of lessons.
I shudder to think of the cost of them...........