Curious About Debit Card Limits At Some Stores

WBZ

It's a fact of modern life that many people don't carry cash, and depend on their credit and debit cards for all kinds of purchases, no matter their size.

Some stores don't want to honor these cards, unless you spend a certain amount.

David from Needham went to our Curiosity web page, after he saw a little handmade sign near the register at a store in Chinatown. They wanted him to spend at least $10 for non-cash purchases. He wanted to know if this is legal.

Edgar Dworsky of www.consumerworld.org told us there is no law requiring retailers to accept credit cards for all purchases. He went on to explain the merchant, however, "Is violating the agreement it has with its credit issuer."

We checked out the policy Visa supplies to its member retailers. It clearly states that "merchants must always honor valid Visa cards regardless of the amount of the purchase."

Despite that policy, however, we found examples in other stores and some restaurants.

One shopper told us she was mad because she went to buy cigarettes which cost about $9 and the clerk insisted she spent more or else she could not use her debit card.

Another shopper said it was an unfair practice, because, "Sometimes you don't want to spend $10."

One woman explained her frustration this way: "A debit car is your cash, sometimes it's not easy to get to an ATM."

We went to a number of stores and found many of them will honor credit cards for small purchases. Still, Dworksy says most of these retailers understandably don't like to. He explained, "Typically when you do a credit card transaction, you have to pay a fee, maybe 2 percent to the bank and there can be a per transaction fee on top of that. So you buy something for just 50 cents and you put it on your credit card, he might end up losing money on that item."

So what can a shopper do? Experts say you can suggest to the clerk they're violating the policy, and ask to speak to a manager. If that doesn't work, another option is to contact your card holder to report the store.

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