While you want to buy a baguette to accompany your dinner, you go to your baker to find that he does not accept bank cards for amounts less than 5 euros. The tile, you who only have your bank card with you and no change… But does a merchant have the right to impose a minimum amount for a payment by credit card to its customers? The answer is yes, as the Public Service explains on its site. Nothing obliges a merchant to accept the bank card for any amount.
Why do merchants refuse bank cards for small amounts?
Merchants pay Interbank Payment Fees (IPC) when a customer purchases an item with a bank card. Their cost is made up of a fixed part and a variable part corresponding to a certain percentage of the amount paid by the customer. Questioned by our colleagues from TF1Yann Roggio, baker in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine), explains that “for 100 traditions sold (at 1.30 euros per unit, editor’s note) the bank charges me 60 cents in bank fees. Per year, it represents between 3,000 and 3,500 euros“.
Several factors come into play in calculating these fees. Firstly, the merchant must pay around 0.3% commission if his client is not in the same bank as him. Then add the network fees, which amount to 0.2% per payment, as well as the margin made by the bank of 1.5%.
The obligation for traders to indicate this to customers
However, the merchant must inform his customers, generally via a poster or a visible sticker. Most of the time, the information is entered at the cash register level. This is a legal obligation. Otherwise, it is possible to make a report to the Fraud Repression services, by calling 0 809 540 550. The organization can also be contacted by mail, at the following contact details: DGCCRF – Response Conso – BP 60 – 34 935 Montpellier Cedex. Finally, reporting can also be made online via https://signal.conso.gouv.fr/.
If the minimum amount is not displayed, the merchant is not entitled to impose it on his customers. Furthermore, merchants can choose to refuse full payment by credit card or accept certain credit cards and not others.
Read also :
⋙ Free bank card: under what conditions?
⋙ Cash: can a merchant refuse this means of payment?
⋙ Does a merchant have the right to refuse to sell a product at the price displayed on the shelf?
