Magic Mart made me a little mad

I went into magic mart needing something really quick. I was on a real time crunch and was running on the edge of being on time or late so I stopped in really quick, grabbed what I needed and proceded to go the the check out. gave the cahsier my item and pulled out my debit card to pay and was told I could not use it because my purchace was not over $5. I was lucky that I actually had cash on me but it really irked me just a bit.

there, got that off my chest. yeah, Im still ****ed about it. If I had the time I would have left it on the register and went to ingles.

you have to remember, some companies charge 3 dollars just to swipe a card so it hurts the business if the purchase isnt over 5 dollars.

to me they either take cards or the don't. they should take the good (the $200 buy) with the bad (the under $5 buy) or they shouldn't take them at all. just my opinion. wonder if they sell some stuff at below cost to bring in customers and lose money on that but accept it because of the customer's they will bring in. I'd bet some of the stuff in their sale papers are below cost.

Its not like this is completely uncommon. A lot of businesses have a minimum purchase before using credit/debit cards.

Loss leaders aren't as common as you would think and isn't specifically a "loss" but more like less. They will sell an item and a fraction of what they could but still make a profit on it. The problem with the cards is that most people don't understand that when you use your card the processing company takes 1.5-3% of the sale, and that is off the total including sales tax not just the pre-tax price. So the company is losing money just to let you have the convenience of using your debit/credit card. That is why you see a lot of places that don't accept American Express because they take 2.9% period and you will either pay that or not accept their card.

I do know it is illegal at times. it is all up to the card (mastercard, visa...) and if they say that a place can not decline the use of your card because of the purchace price they can fine the company. If I'm not mistaken one of the fastmart's got fined for this very reason.

Oh well, won't be a problem again anytime soon, I can promise that.

Most of the mex restaurants have a sign up that says they wont take credit for under 5 bucks.

Yes they do, and I know of one that got called on because they added an item to my friend ticket when she checked out to make it over $5. she called her credit card company to report fraud and they told her they could not refuse to take her card even it it was below $5.

There is no law about it at all, the only thing that can be is in the merchant agreement with their processor. Most but not all contracts stipulate they can't refuse accepting for price. Visa and Discover usually put this stipulation in and AmEx and MC say you can refuse or add charges.

I would imagine Magic Mart and most restaraunts have merchant agreements that allow for refusal or surcharges since they have the tendency to have small sales.