Out of the Woods

Nothing irks me more than to walk into a convenience store, parched and with no cash, grab a soda or iced tea, go to the register, and be met by a sign that reads “$5 minimum on credit cards.” There’s one store down the way from my office that has a $5 minimum on debit cards but no minimum on credit cards! I do everything electronically these days, including using a debit card for 99% of my brick-and-mortar purchases. It’s easier and often faster than cash and it makes getting those transactions into Quicken a no-brainer as I can download them directly from the bank.

Taking it one step further is the KFC I sometimes go to. They have signs everywhere that read, “ID required for all credit and debit card purchases.” That’s BS. The card companies guarantee payment to the merchant as long as normal procedures are followed during the transaction (the card is swiped, the slip is signed, and the signatures on the card and the slip match).

I did a quick search on these practices because I had a hunch they violate some credit card company rule, and I was right. The following comes from Visa’s own “Rules for Visa Merchants” booklet:

Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.

Over at MasterCard’s site, I quote from their “MasterCard Rules” booklet under the “Prohibited Practices” heading:

5.9.3 Minimum/Maximum Transaction Amount Prohibited
A Merchant must not require, or indicate that it requires, a minimum or maximum Transaction amount to accept a valid and properly presented Card.

How about asking for ID? Back to the Visa book:

Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures.

Now, I realize that trying to buck a store’s policies by arguing with the poor, minimum wage cashier will probably get you nowhere. However, you can still print out the relevant sections of the manuals and ask that they be given to management. You can also complain directly to the card companies, which I’m planning to do. I picked up the following information from an accounting information web site:

When merchants violate the policies described here, report them to Visa, MasterCard, and  American Express.  Address your letter to:

Visa USA
Consumer Relations
P.O. Box 8999
San Francisco, CA 94128

MasterCard International
Public Relations
2000 Purchase Street
Purchase, NY 10577

American Express
Customer Service
PO Box 297812
Ft. Lauderdale, Fl 33329-7812
1-800-297-1234 (U.S.) 336-393-1111
(collect) 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m., EST

In your letter, give the name and location of the merchant and a copy of a credit card sales slip. The sales slip is needed by Visa and MasterCard to track down the offending merchant. American Express provides card-members with a toll-free number to call if they have difficulty with a merchant. Make sure you have the complete details about the merchant and the problem before you call.

If a merchant is uncooperative, take your business elsewhere.

‘Nuf said.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 3:08 pm and is filed under Rant.You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.