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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To refuse to shop in places with a minimum card spend?

181 replies

kenchurch · 28/03/2018 18:16

Not sure if I am being unreasonable or not.

It's 2018 and almost everyone used a debit (or credit) card to buy things.
I very rarely carry cash on me.

I point blank refuse to shop anywhere with a minimum total spend to be able to use my card.

Example; I'd fancied a specific type of chocolate all day and had a fairly rubbishy day. Went to shop with £1.05 in change (!). This chocolate is usually £1. It was £1.20, so I went to use my card, but no, minimum £5 spend. So I put the chocolate back, and the guy said he had other types for £1, but instead of giving in and getting one, I just said no thanks and left.

I'm sorry that it costs you to have a card reader etc, but other business also have extra costs associated with the modern age, such as WIFI or other softwares.

It's part of the cost of running a shop so face it and swallow it.

AIBU?

OP posts:
Pinkvoid · 28/03/2018 21:02

An off licence near me has this and I never go in as a result. I’m not going to draw cash out simply to use their shop so imo they’re losing business that way. I don’t know many people who carry cash around nowadays.

Wonkydonky1 · 28/03/2018 21:29

In my shop we don't put anything under a fiver on card, well most of the time we don't anyway, if a customer buys around a fiver and they're new we do explain why we encourage cash for these amounts, they take it on board appreciate that on that occasion we have accommodated them and those who return use cash for those smaller amounts. They seem to accept the reasons why we don't want to and appreciate us explaining it. For £1.20 chocolate bar the answer is simple no sorry we don't, is it worth loosing that sale, well due to operating costs of our card machine it's barley worth accepting it at all and for how often it happens we just don't do it.

There will come about though where legislation will change and all places that deal with card payments will all have to have contactless regardless. It has happened before, and then all shop owners will end up allowing card transactions for all amounts, but until then, small business may not. We can't charge for card use anymore but we still have discretion as to wether the sale for such as all amount would be worth it against card charges we will get for putting the sale through, and use our common sense.

SlackerMum1 · 28/03/2018 21:38

Find just cash so weird now. I never have cash on me anymore as no one wants it - everything is contactless. Yes even the independent coffee cart next to the station - even market stalls all have the contactless devices you can attach to an iPhone or whatever and would prefer you use them. I had to remember to get some money this week as I was heading out of the city for work and only remembered last minute that taxis the other end probably wouldn’t be online or contactless. So really think it depends - round here people would find it very odd for a retailer to have a minimum spend or something

CuboidalSlipshoddy · 28/03/2018 21:43

Local shops for local people can do as they please. Prospective customers can shop or not.

Older readers will remember when m&s didn’t take cards, for bullshit moral reasons. Then their sales started to collapse, and they realised than no-one born after about 1960 was carrying a chequebook. The same will happen to card refuseniks more generally.

Small business like cash for many reasons. It would be invidious to speculate, beyond pointing out that when takeaways are sold the difference between the advertised turnover and the “potential” is usually assumed to be the cash takings not declared for tax.

Lacucuracha · 28/03/2018 21:48

Shops have to pay a fee of around 37p per debit card transaction, so if you pay by card for an item costing a pound it isn't worth the shop selling it to you.

EG if they buy it for 70p and sell it for £1 they are making 30p. Take away the 37p cost of the card transaction and they have actually lost money by selling it to you.

But according to OP, the shop should 'face it and swallow it'.

outabout · 28/03/2018 21:51

I am failing to understand.
This is MN?
If a bar of chocolate is £1.20 and minimum spend is £5.00 Simples, buy 5 bars or to be a true MNer, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of wine for later.

splendide · 28/03/2018 21:52

So is it a flat fee (37p or whatever) or a percentage?

steff13 · 28/03/2018 21:54

You would not be unreasonable to refuse to shop in any store for any reason.

londonrach · 28/03/2018 22:05

Just use cash that everyone else. I only ever use a card for big purchases. Yabu.

ikeepaforkinmypurse · 28/03/2018 22:07

YANBU

why should you buy something that you don't need or want? It's a non-story.

I never have change. I use my cards for everything, and regularly goes to the bank to withdraw x amount in £1 coin, but even these seem to magically disappear in my kids school bags.

Wonkydonky1 · 28/03/2018 22:08

For our card provider we pay rental for the machine and then a percentage of the transaction, and for £1.20, it would work out about the amount previously stated depending on provider, so if it was a passing customer, the sale just wouldn't be worth the effort, regular customers usually if they didn't have the cash for that amount they take bar of choccie with their paper and drop the cash in later!

It is swings and roundabouts, you know your clientele and your customers and deal appropriately, we don't have contacletless yet , we will need to eventually, but for now we can keep are regulars happy and 99% of new, like I said before not all of ours rely on using cards for such small amounts so why increase are costs for a new contactless for one or two?

finominow · 28/03/2018 22:12

YANBU to shop where you please but YABU to expect small businesses to "swallow it" re: card charges.

MrsLaurac · 28/03/2018 22:19

Completely agree, would rather the chocolate be £1.40 than charge me to use my card/restrict how I can spend my money.

UpstartCrow · 28/03/2018 22:24

The shop have to pay the bank for the card machine.
They have the machine because people demand they have one.

If you dont want to pay the charge then have the cash.

YimminiYoudar · 28/03/2018 22:28

So is it a flat fee (37p or whatever) or a percentage?

Each business will have different terms according to their volume of business and how much it is worth it for a bank to service that business's needs.

Some businesses will have a deal that says 20p per transaction plus 2% of the transaction. Some will have a deal of 1.2% of the transaction with a 25p minimum fee and a £10 maximum.

A big retailers like tesco can probably negotiate a low percentage fee with no set "per transaction" element so they can accept a 10x £1 credit card card transactions for the same cost as a single £10 transaction.

They can do that because the volume of business they do means that the credit card processor makes hundreds of thousands of pounds from them and would take a massive dive in profits if they lost tesco as a customer. So tesco get to dictate favourable terms.

Small retailers simply can't negotiate such good terms.

They used to be able to add a 20p charge for card purchases which meant they could afford the card processing fees. That has now been banned. So instead they have no choice but to refuse to take credit cards for amounts so small that they don't make a profit.

If you want small independent retailers to suffer and go out of business so only mega corps can thrive then YANBU.

Personally I like to shop local with small businesses and I make sure I carry plenty of cash so that the small independent shops I love can keep their overheads low and have a chance of survival.

CuboidalSlipshoddy · 28/03/2018 22:36

The shop have to pay the bank for the card machine.

They have to pay for energy, too, but that's not a reason to carry a torch on the off chance I should find myself in a local shop for local people that doesn't have lights. Similar arguments apply to soap in the lavatory at cafes: they could save a few quid by expecting customers to keep a little bottle of handwash with them just in case.

I don't usually carry cash, because I live and work in an environment where everyone takes contactless. Therefore all other things being equal I would normally only have my phone on me. I spend a reasonable amount on coffee, cake and meals out, and therefore if a place doesn't take cards, it doesn't get my business. It's their choice. But it's my choice, too, and I won't be guilted about "pity the poor small business" because I actively choose small businesses and the sensible ones take cards. The ones that don't usually have other issues as well which imply they don't actually understand their own costbase.

finominow · 28/03/2018 22:48

I'm not convinced that the soap in the loo scenario is an appropriate analogy. But of course you should spend your money where you wish Cuboidal
But it's not "guilting" to declare an awareness of the particular pressures that small business face in comparison to large corporations.
We are all entitled to our preferences.

EmmaGrundyForPM · 28/03/2018 22:53

Our village shop.has a minimum £5 spend for a card. Doesn't bother me at all. I'd rather support my village shop than Tesco etc.

Urubu · 28/03/2018 23:00

buy 5 bars or to be a true MNer, a bar of chocolate and a bottle of wine for late Grin

UpstartCrow · 28/03/2018 23:07

No one is saying pity the small business. Its different running a small shop on narrow margins than a large supermarket, and I think its pretty weird not to be able to get that the majority of customers wont pay £1.40 for a bar of chocolate instead of £1.20 just so the minority can use the card machine without a charge.

ballerini · 28/03/2018 23:46

My friend owns a shop and says that there are about 3 different charges that apply for accepting a card transaction so it sounds complicated.

It sounds like ebay. You sell something and think 'yay £20' but then a few quid might disappear and go to paypal and then you later get billed for the ebay final value fee (which includes the amount charged for postage) and your £20 has soon turned into £16.
I agree carrying cash in 2018 annoys the hell out of me. I only ever withdraw money for work collections!
Tesco can afford to pay the bill when you pay by card and only buy something for 35p and as it's such a small percentage of their customers they put up with it!

bruffin · 28/03/2018 23:49

Our local coffee kiosk at the station takes card with no minimum spend and from what i see most of the transactions are card.

Thelampshadelady · 28/03/2018 23:53

You’ve obviously never owned a small business. If you had, you might understand. Plus all the other shit that comes with a business now like work place pensions. Where do you think that money comes from? Trees?

AlexanderHamilton · 28/03/2018 23:56

I never had a card machine when I ran a business & the place I work for now doesn’t either.

Because we banked with co op it cost nothing to bank cash.

himalayansalt · 29/03/2018 00:17

I see more and more threads like this. Honestly, how hard is it to carry £10 or so around with you? Your attitude comes across as, dare I say it?, really rather entitled.