Credit card surcharges

It is my understanding that these are to be banned across-the-board from Saturday.

If this is true, then I assume Plusnet is dropping the £1.50 charge. Can anybody confirm?

I'd like to return to paying by cc. Though the rewards are small, I do get loyalty points on it, which I don't from using my debit card, so though it's not a Tesco card, every little helps, as they say. I tend to put everything possible on it, and then clear it in full each month.

They might do what JustEat have done and rather than charge 50p per card transaction they now just charge everyone 50p as a "service charge".

The article says "Campaigners welcomed the move, saying it was great news for consumers".

I'd disagree with this, the prices will most likely have to increase for everyone to cover the cost. The real winners here are the credit card companies who can bump up the processing fees and offer bigger loyalty rewards to card holders.

Most places don't charge for card transactions anyway - shops for example don't these days tend to charge extra to pay by card. This is essentially normalising the industry - there are costs to processing cash as well in people time for managing the cash so in a way taking credit card payments offsets the staff costs of managing the cash. I don't know what the "average" cost of a cash transaction for shops is compared to a credit card transaction but it may be that cards are ultimately cheaper.

The cost of cash handing has probably increased in recent years. More bank branches have closed and those that are still open won't take money in unless you have an account with them. Cards (and cashback) will reduce the costs of cash handling.

Some could simply stop taking credit cards. That's what HMRC are doing for payments.

Shops are one thing. As for ISPs and other utilities with recurring monthly payments, each of these monthly credit card transactions incurs them a processing fee, whereas Direct Debit does not. Under previous legislation they were allowed to pass on the processing fees they incurred, but no more than that. I think it's fair that Direct Debit users were "rewarded" for using a payment method that doesn't cost the ISP/utility company extra, but now they will likely have to stump up the bill for the credit card companies share of the pie.

I agree with you. It clearly costs money to provide customers with credit. I am now being denied the opportunity of paying less by making prompt payment. It also looks like I will not get such a good deal when I shop around for the best energy utility price.

If they were going to introduce a "service charge" for everyone, as soon as Saturday, I'd expect to have heard about it by now.

Not addressed to you, specifically, Ian, but I wasn't canvassing opinions about the rights or wrongs of it. Just looking for confirmation of whether what seems to be the case actually is - specifically wrt Plusnet. £1.50 was always excessive anyway, whether or not you agree with it in principle.

In reply to a post by TLM:

It is my understanding that these are to be banned across-the-board from Saturday.

If this is true, then I assume Plusnet is dropping the £1.50 charge. Can anybody confirm?

Isn't that a charge for not using Direct Debit rather than a charge for using a credit card? That's pretty commonplace amongst utilities (and £1.50 is on the low side) and I'm unclear as to whether it will still be allowed.