Posted on 09/06/2010 8:59:29 AM PDT by Mobile Vulgus
Previous to the current meddling by Congress, stores were technically not allowed to require a minimum purchase for credit cards. If you wanted to charge ten cents or ten dollars merchants were supposed to accept the charge. But the Durbin Amendment (Sen. Dick Durbin, D of Ill.) to the credit card "reform" bill passed by Congress will change all that by allowing stores to set a minimum charge amount of $10 before you are allowed to use your credit card to purchase something.
This is just one more way that Congress is reaching into your pocket and taking your money. It is easy to realize that millions of people, when told they have to spend $10 to use a credit card, will charge to the minimum despite what they really intended to buy. It's an obvious and unseen tax, in essence. It will become a common sight at cash registers when someone gets a bill of $6 or $7 rung up, a credit card will be brought out, the cashier will tell them of the new minimum charge rule, and the consumer will grab a few candy bars or some other nearby item to push the charge over that $10 minimum. This will be money spent that wasn't intended to be spent but it will happen a lot from here on out...
Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...
why is this a FEDERAL MATTER
So now that means people will have to carry cash. The bums are salivating at the thought that people will once again have some cash in their wallets.
Why don’t they just get it over with and mandate that we all throw a brick through a window once a day?
To paraphrase the Chipmunk Song:
Hurry, Election Day! Hurry, fast!
Because down the road they may want a cut of it? i.e. VAT tax.
USe cash. IT slows the gov’t-google-corp tracking of individuals. Cash transactions are freedom.
Seems reasonable.
“It will become a common sight at cash registers when someone gets a bill of $6 or $7 rung up, a credit card will be brought out, the cashier will tell them of the new minimum charge rule, and the consumer will grab a few candy bars or some other nearby item to push the charge over that $10 minimum. This will be money spent that wasn’t intended to be spent but it will happen a lot from here on out...”
Anyone that stupid deserves to be relieved of their money!
Anyone that stupid shouldn’t have a credit card!
Because, as we've seen the last two years, bank are backstopped by the federal government. If you eat at the federal trough - and the trough here is the federal reserve - the FedGov gets a veto on everything else you do.
Plus, credit card issuers in one state (usually the Dakotas or DE) issue credit cards to people in other states, satisfying the interstate commerce requirement.
It's a stupid idea, but that's why it's enforceable.
Guess we have to change our behavior again. Always on alert to outwit the Feds. Heretofore I have not carried cash and used my debit card. I will now have $10 stashed in a hidden pocket of my purse. Hopefully, most stores won’t take advantage of that ruling. Am I correct that the stores have a choice on this?
“To set a minimum charge amount of $10 before you are allowed to use your credit card to purchase something”....
MOST of the mom and POP stores in my area have been doing this for a while...And I live in NJ....So its no big deal for me :)
Not really. The retail stores were upset about paying transaction fees from the credit card companies, so they lobbied congress for this amendment. Now, the banks, which issue these credit cards, will just find another way to make up for the transaction fee that the retail store is no longer paying...THE TAXPAYER. That means no free checking accounts, folks. kiss it goodbye.
Slouching towards Fascism.
I now take a cash withdrawal each week for those things AT MY BANK...no charge.
You really cut through it. It should be up to the businesses to decide on a minimum. Someone doesn't like it, go elsewhere.
It should also be up to them if they want to give a discount to people who pay cash. Everybody but the banks could make out if that discount is half of the percent businesses pay to banks to process credit card purchases.
Banks tax?
That means no free checking accounts, folks. kiss it goodbye.
TANSTAAFL
The law of unintended consequences strikes again.
I have to side with the stores on this one.
1. Credit card companies charge stores a fee each time a card is used for a purchase.
2. On small purchases, stores often lose money because of this fee.
3. Because credit card companies essentially have a monopoly, they have been able to threaten businesses with the loss of their credit account if they set a minimum amount for credit purchases.
In this instance, the govt. is just stepping in and preventing the credit card companies from acting in a monopolistic manner. Sure, a business could tell Visa or MasterCard where to stick it, but they might as well put up a “going out of business” sign. Few retailers can survive without taking credit cards.
We upcharge customers for using credit cards 3%.
It is perfectly within the rules as long as we advertise that our prices are cash prices reflecting a discount that cannot be earned when using credit cards.
Of course, our bank charges us for cash deposits and there is the additional risk of having cash around.
That means I can’t grab a dollar burger at McDonald’s and charge it.
Most small businesses already have a minimum charge for credit cards.
Your title doesn’t match your description of the amendment.
The meddling is when the government says that retailers MUST accept credit cards, even when doing so would cause them to lose money on a sale.
This at least gives some control back to the retailers, where it belongs.
I’m greatly surprised that Durbin would actually propose such a reasonable thing!
I can solve this problem ( of having to buy unneeded items).
Simply raise the price of everything so that nothing is less than $10.
Except do with bills under $50 twice in the past week I have had merchants refuse to take larger notes, and these were national chains. I had always thought stores could not refuse legal tender.
If you want something costing $2, just buy five of them, then take four of them back for a refund the next day.
I agree with you, I am seeing a minimum purchase sign at a number of places. Also, I recently moved to another state. Neither state accepts cards for auto tags, drivers licences, or property taxes, cash or check only, which eliminates paying online, also.
...wonder how all this would work at the gas pump; someplace where you won’t know the cost until the nozzle clicks off. There are plenty of places where I feel the need to ‘top off’.......I’m not tickled at the thought of making two entirely unnecessary trips to the cashier in the booth.
In San Francisco, you can't grab a dollar burger a McDonald's whether you have cash or a credit card. They removed the DOLLAR MENU completely.
Hassle in Haight over McDonald’s menu change
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2584032/posts
“The McDonald’s at the corner of Haight and Stanyan streets eliminated its Dollar Menu about a month ago, making the items on it too expensive for the people who spend the better part of their day on the sidewalk in front. “
well locally I noticed that their value double cheeseburger went from $1 up to $1.29 and then up to $1.79...but its still listed on the dollar menu....
now Burger King has a very nice double cheeseburger and a small fry on the dollar menu and they are quite good...better than their whoppers...
bttt
Seems like what we have now. I see store and restaurants all over the place with a minimum charge for credit cards. I'm wondering whether this article simply has the story wrong.
The credit card processor charges about $0.35 per transaction plus a fee of around 2%. Tell me now the merchant can make money on a purchase of $0.40 or less?
I worked for a credit card processor VAR about a decade ago.
In EUrope, the federal governments mandated a maximum transaction processing fee and transaction percentage fee in the 1990’s.
European merchants and consumers pay less than half the cost in CC fees as Americans and Canadians, and the Credit Card companies/banks in Europe are still turning healthy profits.
The profit margins of the banks in the credit card consortiums in the United States are outright obscene and a crime against the people of this country.
I don’t see the problem here, since merchants who were previously probibited from imposing these minimum purchase rules may have been taking a loss on small sales. Credit card companies like Visa and MasterCard charge merchants fees based on the amount of the transactions that are charged, and for small purchases it may not even be worth the merchant’s time to sell the product.
I don’t understand your analogy at all.
“which eliminates paying online, also.”
I pay all my bills online with checks.
RE: “I agree with you, I am seeing a minimum purchase sign at a number of places. Also, I recently moved to another state. Neither state accepts cards for auto tags, drivers licences, or property taxes, cash or check only, which eliminates paying online, also.”
***************
I’m in Los Angeles. For decades, until a few years ago, individual stores set their own ‘minimum’ policies, usually no charging allowed under $5 - $10. Only in recent years has this seemed to disappear and any tiny amount could be charged.
I always have some cash in case I wanted to buy something super inexpensive in a store with a minimum.
$20s seem to be the way to go unless buying gas.
GGGRRRR! Hope there is a exemption for online purchases?Many times when I want to buy a new embroidery design it may only cost $2.99 this will seriously hurt the little sites where you might like one but not want any others.
Electronic transactions use networks that cross state lines to verify that the money is in the account and authorize the transaction, and credit the seller’s account.
Trade between states and among states is fair game for Federal regulation.
Look it up.
Way to go, Obama, in putting the kabosh on what little commerce is still taking place in the real economy!
I rarely carry cash because I pay my credit card bill at the end of every month. If I can’t buy a cup of coffee with my credit card, I skip it. It’s that simple.
But anyway . . . I’m on a consumer strike against the President anyway. If Congress won’t stop spending, I WILL. Time to starve the beast.
Again, I wonder if bums don’t accost people as much now that people rarely carry cash. Force people to carry cash again, and the bums will return in droves.
The other side of the story is these stores will be hurt, at least initially, because many people no longer carry cash and they use credit cards for small purchases, especially small impulse purchases.
The stores will lose that business unless and until consumers want to carry cash again.
Of course, it’s up to the store how to deal with that, for example, by lowering prices or offering discounts for cash.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.