Charge for using Credit card?

According to the terms the merchant signs up to, they can't charge you more for using visa\mastercard. They can however offer a discount for cash.

From [broken link removed]

Always treat Visa transactions like any other transaction; that is, you may not impose any surcharge on a Visa transaction. You may, however, offer a discount for cash transactions, provided that the offer is clearly disclosed to customers and the cash price is presented as a discount from the standard price charged for all other forms of payment.
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In theory, if a merchant was reported to visa\mastercard for this, they face loosing their ability to accept credit cards at all!
 
berni is right, it is completely illegal unless they say it to you in advance (or make it clearly visable~signage etc) they do indeed face problems if reported...i.e. it makes people not want to use visa + that pisses off visa!

What i do is wait till after the transaction then get all flustered and say you never said and explain the legalities......they will then refund the amount.
If you say it before, well, then they have informed you previous to the transaction and you dont have a leg to stand on!
 
According to AIB Credit Card services, if the customer is given a receipt showing the credit card charge as an additional charge then the credit card company will refund it. If the shop gives a receipt for the overall cost including the credit card charge then there is nothing the credit card company can do.

So, when you've been given a price for the item or service you wish to buy, make sure that your receipt shows that price. If you are paying with credit card make sure they show any additional charge separately on the receipt.

If the shop selling the product or service refuses to show the credit card charge as separate to the purchase price of the item, then take your business elsewhere.

-soc
 
As I understand it, the terms of business are dicated in the agreement between the merchant and the card provider, and that these charges are allowable as long as they are provided for in the merchant agreement.

But I see from reading this Key Post, that such agreements seem to prohibit levying a surcharge for using credit cards, but note that such charges are not illegal.

I would guess that the justification for such charges is that the merchant pays a percentage of each transaction to the card provider every time a transaction is processed, so they are just recovering this cost from the customer.
 
So every merchant agreement is different then? So Tescos probably have a different agreement to say Dunnes Stores?
 
I would imagine that that could very well could be the case, e.g. Dunnes pay 0.75% and Tesco pay 0.5%, I don't think that would be unusual.
 
bond-007 said:
So every merchant agreement is different then? So Tescos probably have a different agreement to say Dunnes Stores?
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True but neither has the authority of adding a surcharge to your end price.
If they do and you consent you can contact the service provider.
If they do so without your consent or knowledge then they acted illegal
 
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