Originally Posted by
AA_EXP09
and many of the ones that do accept card there charge £.5/£1 for doing so (easily 10-20% of an order too), so the preferred payment method there is also cash.
That's what I meant by cash is still king - an exorbitant credit card fee is the same as not accepting cards, as far as I'm concerned. Worse, actually.
Originally Posted by
BruceyBonus
And many places have minimum spends too. My local Indian takeaway is £10 minimum, plus a £1 fee. No good if I'm eating on my own. Local butcher has the same minimum spend, but with a 50p fee.
Then you get pubs who make up odd rules. One in Islington (near King's Cross station) would only take cards for purchases under £5 if they were contactless
It's sad that merchants see credit card fees as a way of raising profit. One place near my charges a US $1 fee on all card transactions. Their typical transaction is a couple of dollars. The fee is massively out of proportion to their cost of acceptance in all these cases. A 20p/25 cent fee? I'd almost feel for the merchant and say "well, they are covering a cost they perceive because they're too short-sighted to see the benefit" but 50 cents... 50p... $1... £1... $2 (yes I've seen it)... outrageous. I'll buy from cash-only businesses, but I try to avoid businesses profiting off of card fees.
The contactless only for under £5? That I'm okay with. They're saving money (contactless incentives... if they existed in the US it might be a different landscape...), and in general, as most British cards have contactless, they're only asking you to please tap instead of insert to save them money.
Originally Posted by
JEFFJAGUAR
Do bear in mind that one of the lies clerks are instructed to tell people who notice that the dcc scam is being perpetrated on them is to tell them the amount listed in your currency is just an estimate for your convenience and that you are really being billed in whatever the local currency is. Of course when I come back and say then why am I being asked to sign a statement that I agree to the conversion rate and the decision is final, they quickly shut up.
I have seen this actually be true once. My final receipt, after choosing to pay in Euro on the PIN pad, at the Flying Pig Uptown Amsterdam last summer, had the DCC verbiage on it complete with the final decision statement. They assured me it was only for reference, and as I KNOW what I picked on the PIN pad I decided to leave it be. Sure enough, the transaction was charged correctly in Euro.