Was in a local Chinese last night and was told my order was €3.50, pulled out my card and she said no actually €4.00. I was visibly confused and she said it was for paying with card. I’ve never had this happen before and from what I’ve researched it’s [not legal](https://www.irishtimes.com/news/ireland/irish-news/additional-charges-no-longer-apply-to-credit-card-transactions-1.3354793). I’m used to businesses being cash only around here so the legality bit is honestly not a huge deal, but charging more for card?? I feel scammed.

by unsureserver

21 comments

  1. lots of places charge extra 50 cent for paying by card its nothing new

  3. If I were you I’d march back in and demand that 50c

  4. You should have said you only have €3.50 on your card, up to them then to either give it to you or not, I’ve a funny feeling that they would have taken it.

  5. I would have said thank you, I’ve changed my mind and left.

  6. Some places used to not take a card payment unless it was over €5. I avoided a Spar next to my house for about 4 years because of that rule. They’ve since stopped.

  7. Not illegal, but against the terms of the agreement they sign to be able to take payment via card. You could report them and visa/mastercard would cut them off.

    VISA/Mastercard are the real baddies tho, they force their fees on vendors – and there is little competition.

  9. you should have walked off and told them to keep the food so

    its illegal

  10. 3 Chinese takeaways where I live, they all add 50c service charge!

  11. Charging more for using a card is illegal.

    Putting a minimum spend is not illegal but is against the terms of their merchant service agreement with whoever they use, which in turn is because it’s against the visa/Mastercard terms of service.

    Tell them that and if they still refuse walk away.
    I put the shits up one shop when I worked in a bank, pretended to ring our 24hr ops desk and give them the name of the shop and pretended to tell them to switch the machine off remotely. The lad let me pay using card…

  12. There used to be a card fee for ordering online from most food places. Then I think the EU banned it (could be wrong) and then overnight the card fee became a “service charge”.

    Shitheads.

  13. I have a small business. My average transaction is probably close to £100. I’ve not had to look too much at card processing fees. But say they were £0.50 plus 1% on the £100 I lose £1.50. So I make £18.50 instead of £20. On £700 sales I’d lose £10.50.

    If you were a food business doing 200 transactions of £3.50 you lose £100 plus £7. That is a substantial amount. It would pay someone’s salary.

    Business that do a large number of small transactions are penalised heavily by banks. Support them by using cash or expect to pay more or that type of business to close.

  15. Went to get a roll from a Londis a few years ago on my lunch. Was made up and all and I went to pay with my card. Was met with “Sorry no card payments under €5”. I said “I’ve no cash.” Response was “Sure you could buy something else there to get over the threshold”.

    I left the roll on the counter and walked across the road to the chipper.

  16. I’ve actually had this in supermacs in Cork. It was a few years ago, so maybe it has changed, but they charged an extra 10c for card. I noticed but was in too much of a rush to argue but can’t help but think of the amount of customers getting charged an extra.

  17. What did you get that was €3.50! I can’t get anything near me for that price, even chips are €4

  19. God damned Loch Ness monster wanted more than 3 fiddy

  21. Just as refusing cash should not be acceptable, this shouldn’t be either.

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