Corner Shop charging policy

[Whipped]

For some reason, whenever I buy goods in my local SPAR (Now a PMS Supermakets?) using a credit or debit card they seem to whack £1.30 on top of the price. This happens no matter what the cost of the items I buy.

Just wondering if this is standard practice, legal, and if anyone else has encountered the same thing?

 

[~Yuckfou~]

Surcharges are common, usually 2-3% is normal, as there is a charge to the retailer. £1.20 seems a bit steep, but as long as it is clear there will be a charge then they are within their rights.

 

[nath]

Jup, sucks but it's all fair and legal for the reasons Yuck said. Amex is becoming less and less accepted nowadays because they charge retailers a huge amount for the priviledge of offering that card as a payment method. Bloody yanks.

 

[Clown]

Even if you spend over £20 quid?
Anyway, it isn't a real corner shop

 

[tris-]

i noticed that, but it always says this £xx.xp is not added to the price but that much is given to some place or other. never seen an actual charge to the consumer before

 

[throdgrain]

Where I work we charge 1.5% on credit card transactions over £500.

 

[Tom]

Look on your IKEA receipt the next time you go.

TBH, I'd rather use plastic than cash anyday.

 

[Ronso]

I live in ireland and in our shop it costs us 5 percent to run through a customers card but we dont charge em - celtic tiger bullshit or sumit

 

[old.user4556]

Yeah, Spar are just charging you the card handling fee that most other retailers pay for you.

G

 

[Lester]

Sometimes it's a percentage with a flat charge on top. when you consider that they make about 10p on a packet of fags and 10-15% on everything else, it's a big chunk. Supoprt your local shop and don't buy from Tesco et al (unless you want them to rule the world within 5 years.)

 

[Whipped]

ok, all seems fair enough. It's rare that I'll use my cards in there, as it's usually used for little bits and pieces that I pay for with cash.

At least I know I'm not being scammed now. Cheers guys.

 

[jna]

the local pub to me just down the road charge 50 pence for transactions on cards and they wont accept them unless the total is over £15 at all. no idea why that is, because surely if theyre charging anyhow then it makes no difference. it sucks relaly, because if i have a tab for drinks there i have to wait until it gets to 15 pounds before i can pay it off

 

[Gef]

Local shop near me charges you 50p on card transactions below £5 and thats it. Good old Londis, its a bit pikey but they come up with the goods.