What is up with these small shops

[jefehbk]

Merchant fees are too high. The first discover card we take every month costs us $20. Usually, the discover card users seem to want a $2 part and then whip out that POS. Why don't you have a little cash on you anyway? Oh yeah, all those reward programs don't cost the banks anything they just kick a merchant in the balls with a higher fee every time they take a reward card. I try to get EVERYONE to pay with debit or cash.
Some large AMEX purchases have cost us as much as an amplifier in transaction fees. It is pretty hard give away that amount of money just to take a card.

like what kind of fees are MC, VIsa, AMEX, etc charging? are the fees based on dollar amount of transaction or is it flat rate?

[Pro88LX]

like what kind of fees are MC, VIsa, AMEX, etc charging? are the fees based on dollar amount of transaction or is it flat rate?

the guy that owns the store downstairs in my apt building sais he gets charged a fee per transaction plus a percentage. he has a 3 dollar minimum for debit/credit purchases. Ive become friends with the guy so if im buying something cheap he just waits until the next time i come in and then charges me for it,,,,kind of like a tab i guess.

[GE]

I'm too lazy to go look it all up, but...

Up until recently, a merchant couldn't refuse any transaction below a certain dollar amount. It was my understanding that it violated their merchant service agreement (or what have you). But I also remember reading with all of the updated legislation, that they were allowed to do this now.

[fordracing19]

Yeah I understand the fees suck, but isn't that part of doing business with debit and credit cards? I mean either you take the cards or you don't even bother using cards at the business. And have a sign outside saying ONLY CASH or something like that.

Thats why we still swipe them. Someone buys a $1.50 soda and we get charged $0.30 transaction fee plus 2.5%

[The King]

You took the time to call some of the largest lenders in the world and worked your way down the series of member banks, and agents, to shut down mom&pop because they wouldn't take a loss on your bottle of yoo-hoo and a bag of funyuns?

What a rare combination of petty anger and loads of free time you have.

*****applause*****

[Taylor]

I've had that happen before. They don't have to take your business. Which is fine with me, because when they tell me "I haven't spent enough to use my debit card," I laugh and walk out and never go back. There is a thing called "The cost of doing business." Mostly I see it with foreigner owned places.

Lots of places have these minimums, however from my experience, it's the foreign owned places that actually enforce them.

[Snatch Napkin]

I've heard of quite a few mom&pop shops doing this. We actually thought about doing it ourselves at one point. However, our local bank has handled our business for 30 years, so they came up with a plan to help us out with all of those fees.

One thing we did do before the bank began working with us was to use their debit card for anything under $25. It was our understanding that the debit card didn't charge a fee whereas the credit card does. We noticed that it was upsetting to a few customers who could not remember their PIN#. This is when we spoke with the bank.

I completely understand why you guys are disgruntled with the small shops doing this, but to get them shut down is absolutely ridiculous. Most of these small shops have fought the electronic age tooth and nail. Have a little patience with them. Once they hand it over to a beneficiary or sell out, then the next owners "should" have a little more up to date sense about them.

As for the business owners, they really should have a local bank handle their business instead of a third party merchant service. To do otherwise makes an already stressful business life even worse. To a lot, it becomes impossible to survive.

[Txstang1]

Fuck em, if they don't want to take my debit card (which I use as a credit card), then that's their problem. It's between the merchant and the card company. If they don't want my business , I'll go to a place that does not have a min purchase.

I use the ups store in Sachse all the time for business, if they ever pull the 10.00 min shit , I just won't ever go back.