Why should i have to pay for your convience?

[He Man]

Just raise your prices 3% on buy it now listings.

smart, but ebays one step ahead, they charge you a buy it now listing fee!


Q could mess up yoda pretty bad.

[DrDesmo]

You're paying for the opportunity to advertise your items ... To the world ... And not have to deal with a trip to the bank to deposit a check.

If neither of those things make your life easier, or you can't see the value in paying for them - advertise o CraigsList after getting killed with fees on eBay / PayPal I just started selling everything on CL and Forums ... Never had an issue, and its free

Cheers,
Adam

[mstevens]

Just like a store can refuse to accept a credit card payment for anything under a certain amount

Ah, but they can't. Doing this is a violation of the merchant agreement for every card issuer in the US.

That doesn't mean merchants don't try, and it doesn't mean they don't often get away with it, but if they get caught it usually means either that they lose their account or have to pay a fine.

[redxblack]

weird - just about every bar around here has a $12 minimum credit card rule. It's rarely a problem for me since we take turns buying rounds.

[He Man]

Every subways has a $5min order (never seen one that didnt)
Every bar has a $20 min order (easily aciheved with 2 beers)
Every corner store i know has a $10 min order to use a CC.

I never knew it was illegal to not accept a CC for cost below a certain item. It certainly doenst look like it, and the big CC companies dont seem to fight it.

[derby]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11697094/

Merchants accepting Visa or MasterCard credit or debit cards are not allowed to set a minimum amount for using the card; that is a violation of the merchant agreement.


Can a merchant charge you a service fee for using a credit card or debit card? There is no federal regulation that prohibits this. The law that prohibited a surcharge on credit card purchases expired back in 1984. Both Visa and MasterCard allow a merchant to offer a discount to customers who pay by cash or check, but  in most cases they say, a merchant cannot charge more for putting it on plastic -- that would be a violation of the merchant agreement.

[He Man]

What actually defines a merchant though? anyone looking to sell goods? or does it have to be a company? some sort of corps/llc etc.

[mstevens]

I never knew it was illegal to not accept a CC for cost below a certain item.

It's not illegal. It's a contract violation.

the big CC companies dont seem to fight it.

They do when they get complaints.

A "merchant" in this case is anyone who is accepting credit cards. That includes for goods or for services.

[He Man]

ebay states that if you sell and accept paypal, you must have a premier account, and in doing so, you must accept credit cards. man they got you in a loop hole no matter what you do. :/

[River]

Look, here's the bottom line:

I'm a merchant, a "little guy."  I have MAYBE a 30% margin on the goods I sell.  If someone walks into my store and wants to purchase a $1.50 item with a credit card, I pay a $0.39 fee + anywhere from 2-4% fee for the transaction on top of that.  If I let them use a credit card for that purchase, I lose money.  So if the person buying it doesn't want to give me cash, they don't need it that badly.  And if the credit card company wants to drop my contract as a result of me charging a surcharge to pay THEIR stupid fees when they make money coming AND going, they can bite me.  I'll find another merchant machine company.

Sorry folks, that's just how it is.

[He Man]

I'm a merchant, a "little guy."  I have MAYBE a 30% margin on the goods I sell.  If someone walks into my store and wants to purchase a $1.50 item with a credit card, I pay a $0.39 fee + anywhere from 2-4% fee for the transaction on top of that.  If I let them use a credit card for that purchase, I lose money.  So if the person buying it doesn't want to give me cash, they don't need it that badly.  And if the credit card company wants to drop my contract as a result of me charging a surcharge to pay THEIR stupid fees when they make money coming AND going, they can bite me.  I'll find another merchant machine company.

agreed x 10.

[superjohn]

Look, here's the bottom line:

I'm a merchant, a "little guy."  I have MAYBE a 30% margin on the goods I sell.  If someone walks into my store and wants to purchase a $1.50 item with a credit card, I pay a $0.39 fee + anywhere from 2-4% fee for the transaction on top of that.  If I let them use a credit card for that purchase, I lose money.  So if the person buying it doesn't want to give me cash, they don't need it that badly.  And if the credit card company wants to drop my contract as a result of me charging a surcharge to pay THEIR stupid fees when they make money coming AND going, they can bite me.  I'll find another merchant machine company.

Sorry folks, that's just how it is.

When I was in the retail business, I didn't have that many people trying this, so it all balanced out in the end. Lose on some transactions, gain on others. I bet it's way worse now with the advent of check cards.

[Kopfjäger]

When I was in the retail business, I didn't have that many people trying this, so it all balanced out in the end. Lose on some transactions, gain on others. I bet it's way worse now with the advent of check cards.

I don't think the hit on the merchant, for using a check card is as bad as a cc.

[derby]

agreed x 10.

you can say you agree all you want, but you're still complaining about adhering to the TOS or restrictions of a vendor that you choose to partner with to facilitate your sales.

as drdesmo said above, cut ebay out of the mix and you not only avoid their various fees, but you can also accept whatever forms of payment you want.

[derby]

I don't think the hit on the merchant, for using a check card is as bad as a cc.

wouldn't that depend on how the transaction was processed? you can process those both as an at (with pin) or via the mc/visa system.