Credit card surcharge

[courtjester]

I'm not a finance money guy. There are a couple of places I go to who charge 50c to use your CC or eftpos card if the transaction is under $5.

Another place charges 50c whatever the amount you spend with them. This seems weird to me.

Does it actually cost businesses money to access eftpos etc? Surely banks would not be charging good businesses for eftpos?

It seems like we'll be cashless within about a decade anyway. Seems strange to charge for businesses to still charge for this. Always leave a weird taste in my mouth. I can understand it on small purchases if there is a bank charge....

 

[AtomicBlonde]

I'm not a finance money guy. There are a couple of place I go to who charge 50c to use your CC or eftpos card if the transaction is under $5.

Another place charges 50c whatever the amount you spend with them. This seems weird to me.

Does it actually cost businesses money to access eftpos etc? Surely banks would not be charging good businesses for eftpos?

It seems like we'll be cashless within about a decade anyway. Seems strange to charge for businesses to still charge for this. Always leave a weird taste in my mouth. I can understand it on small purchases if there is a bank charge....

I wouldn't bet on it, the computer age was supposed to lead to a paperless society - hasn't happened yet.

 

[Quivorir]

My business has an ATM machine that is no fee up until a certain $ ammount per month, then its $x for that month. No fee per transaction though.

 

[Gough]

As a fellow non finance money guy, I'd say they are doing it because they are money grabbing campaigners.

 

[Catfish Alley]

As far as I know, it costs money to set up an account, software and connection for the service. The charges are from Visa and Mastercard. Sometimes there are minimal bank fees but they shouldn't charge for debit.

 

[Keys]

My wife has a small business. We looked at getting an eftpos machine to make it easier for people to pay but the costs were quite substantial for a low turnover business (~$100k pa) so we didn't go ahead with it

 

[Gough]

When I had the textbook shop we offered a two tier discount system with the higher discount coming from paying by card. Cash is a pain in the arse, it's much easier by card.

 

[courtjester]

When I had the textbook shop we offered a two tier discount system with the higher discount coming from paying by card. Cash is a pain in the arse, it's much easier by card.

This is what I don't get. Even if the banks charge something small for EFTPOS transactions, surely it's easier than the manual handling needed for cash, which needs to be counted, stored, counted again, carried somewhere physically and perhaps banked.