Government to ban card surcharges
 

LINK
This news is long overdue, cards bring in extra business and any cost to the supplier should have been absorbed as a normal business expense. Is this the turning point for the Coalition, are we, at long last, going to have a Government putting the people first, I certainly hope so.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

tbf, i wouldn't have an issue with the actual card transaction cost being charged, it's the excessive amount that's charged that is the problem, and the fact that some airlines charge per person, rather than on the one card transaction.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

I disagree with the charges being removed completely as that's how concert ticket companies make their money, however the government wants to remove excessive charges which in theory is great but that's just another ambiguous word which they'll present as being in our favour but in reality could mean anything.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

And of course, Ryanair are saying they don't have credit/debit card surcharges, just administration fees....:dozey:

Reminds me of the old riddle/joke attributed to Abraham Lincoln -

Q: If you call a tail a leg, how many legs does a dog have?

A: Four, because calling a tail a leg doesn't mean it is one.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

If it costs a business to handle a transaction that cost will be passed to the consumer in some form. At least by having a specified transaction fee for cards it is only bourne by those who choose to pay that way. Now it's likely that all prices will rise to cover the cost, or that plastic will be less widely accepted.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

The charges I find hard to stomach are the ones added to a cinema ticket when booking on line at the cinema's own website.

You can make exactly the same purchase, with a card, in person without penalty but online there's a booking fee that amounts to about 10% on top of the ticket price. It's indefensible that cinemas are charging more for use of their online services when just about every shop on the high street is undercutting itself online.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

I started a thread a while back about this when Which magazine started the campaign .They started a super complaint with the OFT .It's nice to see these things actually get sorted instead of just brushed aside once the media has finished reporting .
It is interesting to note that the ban was going to happen anyway accross the EU in 2014 ,we get ours a couple of years early


http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16135920

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

I bought concert tickets at the venue in cash and saved £34% compared with online or over the phone!!

I also avoid a few local shops that charge a minimum of £2.50 for each credit card transaction.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

it's funny because the DVLA did this themselves.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

If somebody has 100 tickets to sell, then it costs them the same to man the phone lines etc, whether they are sold to 100 separate people or to 10 people in blocks of 10 at a time.:rolleyes:

Ticket Agencies are just acting on behalf of the venues. The ticket price will go to the venue, leaving them with these charges. As I have pointed out, their costs remain the same, regardless of many separate orders there are. If any charges are based per order, then those buying just 1 or 2 tickets will bear the brunt of the increased charges.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

If the venue benefits from not having to employ staff and set up systems to handle ticket sales then surely the venue should discount the tickets to the agencies and enable them to make a profit without lumping an extra charge on the buyers.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

Then any charges would be completely hidden and would be per ticket, which is what people are complaining about.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

I doubt it. They would have to implement this anyway as it is part of some new European wide legislation.

Dare I say a bit of Government spin? :devsmoke:

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

But the buyers would still be paying the listed price for the ticket without any added charges. Surely that gives the same result as buying at the door so everyone wins.
I guess it's down to the concert organisers to take a wee loss on bulk sales, which seems fair enough to me when the prices are as high as they are these days.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

It's not quite the same. If any genuine admin costs are included within the ticket price, it means the true cost of the booking is visible up-front, rather than only being revealed at the very end of the transaction.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

And l would rather have that then a nasty surprise at the end of the transaction.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

The charge is not excessive though, fixed at £2.50 per licence to Credit Cards only
Equally, they advise in advance that you can avoid this by using other methods, such as a Debit Card

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

automated card transactions have very little inherit cost to the seller. By that I mean either an order done over the internet or one done automatically on the phone. The only costs are the transaction fees by the card processor, which for large companies is very low. This seems to have come about because the system is been abused, some companies it seems will charge a significant fee for transactions even when its automated, this in effect allows them to advertise a lower base price to lure customers in and then push of some of the base price as a admin fee of some sort. To me that is false advertising and for that reason the ASA should have already clamped down on this.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

Its not before time either, it must be the most cost effective method of paying a bill, electronic transfer, my local car auctions charge nothing for card transactions, but they do charge 1.5% on any cash transaction, simply because it involves physically moving money about.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

I notice that the news stated retailers would be permitted to charge a "reasonable" fee, and the figure mentioned I think was 2% credit card and 20p debit card.

If a retailer is going to charge to use a debit card, then I just wondered how much the costs for alternative methods of payment would be?
If I paid in cash, then I believe there is a similar banking charge for this to be deposited.

So does this mean they're going to include the possibilty for a retailer to charge for ANY payment type, and if I have cashback, (since there's no additional charge for the retailer) can we charge the retailer a fee?

My main point is, whilst I can understand a small fee for credit cards, debit cards should not attract any fee whatsoever.

Re: Government to ban card surcharges
 

When I buy anything in a shop I always ask if they charge for using a credit card, if they say there is then I pay cash. not sure if I am correct but don't businessses have to pay bank charges when paying cash into their account.

Don't the shop have to display a notice that they charge for credit card payments?

They will just put up the cost of the goods to cover their losses now, it is just the government trying to make us think they have done something positive.