Are merchants allowed to impose a $10.00 minimum on credit card purchases ?

Answer 1

No, not according to visa:
Merchants who accept Visa cards are not permitted to:

* Establish minimum or maximum transaction amounts, even on sale items.
* Charge a "service charge", "service fee" or "surcharge", even on sale items.

If a merchant does not comply with these regulations, please contact your Visa card-issuing financial institution whose responsibility it is to document and follow up on cases of merchant violations.

Answer 2

It is against most processing banks policies and it may be a violation of your Merchant Agreement with a bank. However, most people who make these regulations have never run a business. If you have a "transaction fee" such as 20-cents and the transaction is for $5, this has already cost you 4% of the transaction. Add the percentage (let's say 2%) and it costs 6% of your profits. Many retailers post a sign of the nature you describe, defying the bank's regulations just to survive. If however you have a merchant account WITHOUT a transaction fee, it should make no difference to you.

Answer 3

Yeah, in this country we have a severe case of what the french call Lasez Faire, or roughly translated let the business be. So yes. in this case the minimum on credit card purchases is actually somewhat justified. See merchants have to pay what's called a CC Fee to the CC company for all credit card transactions. now this fee varies between the agreements the merchants have with the CC companies but it seems to run somewhat high, but the merchants can't charge more for a credit card purchase so they can't really pass this fee on to the consumer, so they have to limit the lower amounts of purchases on a CC.
-Duo

Answer 4

Yes.

Unlike legal tender, credit cards are a service. The merchant pays the credit card company a small percentage per transaction to allow their customers the convenience of paying with a card. This becomes a loosing proposition for purchases under a certain amount.

Answer 5

It would depend on the laws in your state, but yes it is usually legal for them to do so. Most often merchants rent the credit card machines and are also charged additional fees per transaction. So, establishments that don't do much credit card business may require a minimum purchase amount to offset any costs they incure on the transaction.

Answer 6

No wonder I see Uni-Marts closing all over the place. Both Visa and Mastercard prohibit having a minimum purchase. This somehow hasn't stopped the stores from trying to enforce it. I'm going to bookmark that site so I can start filling out those forms.

Answer 7

Although it seems coersive they are in the right to impose whatever rules they choose, within their legal rights of course. They can choose to only serve customers with a certain dress code, ie footware and long pants required to eat at this establishment or club, or choose to not accept checks or credit cards at all. If an establishment wants your money bad enough they will not be as restrictive, if on the other hand they get alot of people comming in for ciggaretts, gum, or a soda, they will probably discourage those purchaces since I believe there is some sort of transaction fee per charge that the store must eat. Perhaps if they sell $10 worth of merchandise they make up the loss.

Answer 8

It costs the merchant to have a credit card purchase processed to receive his money from the sale. He really doesn't have to take your card at all. Yes, he can impose a minimum purchase price, just like some restaurants impose a minimum order price.

Answer 9

no, visa and mastercard have strict rules against this. Smaller merchants however, ignore or flaunt this rule by imposing the min charge since the surcharge they pay to Visa and MC is high.

If it really irks you, you can contact Visa or Mastercard and report the merchant, but what good does that do?

Answer 10

Wow. Once again, I'm amazed at the number of people who don't know, who try to pretend that they do. (ie, the five answerers above mine.)

The correct answer is: NO.

This is a DIRECT VIOLATION of the terms of service with their credit card processor. However, that doesn't seem to stop many of them.

I would contact the organization (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) and complain. They should be able to "convince" the merchant not to do this.