BuRR

I've just noticed on a receipt from a major high-street retailer that 2.5% of my payment goes towards the card company as a charge to the retailer for using plastic. The retailer states "The price you see is the price you pay" so why don't we get that 2.5 % OFF the price if we pay by cash?

Da Booga

As far as I know I thought this was a way of reducing the amount of VAT the trader has to pay over to the VAT man as the supply of credit services etc. isn't VATABLE. This lets them reduce the VAT they pay by 2.5% on all sales made on cards.

I'm sure there was a big court case recently with a large high street retailer and HM Customs over this.

milo

if its a small owned retailer.. u can ask. if u speak to the owner and you're buying a few things, chances are you can get money off. i regularly do.

for bigger chains like dixons etc, theres rarely anyone ever working there with the authority to do it.. and the people who work there tend not to give a **** whether u buy the stuff or not.

also remember, if u pay in cash, the retailer has to have people counting the cash to make sure there are no discepancies, have someone take it to the bank to cash it and get change etc etc... in other words, it probably costs them around 2.5% of their cash takings to administer you paying in cash. which is why they dont pass it on to u.

boomer

Could be worse,

IKEA will charge you 70p to use a credit card from Wednesday, even after queuing for more than half an hour at the tills.

See You are so bloody English for details.

Dumb move

mb

Poor Guy

i always try to blagg the price down using cash in hand as a lever, usually works too. shame it didnt work with the scoob though "doesnt make a difference, cash or cheque,sir"

Jerome

Further to the above, bank charges for cash cost so much that big stores also do the cash-back thing to reduce the amount of cash they have to take to the bank.

The only people who do discounts for cash nowadays are dodgy traders trying to evade tax.

Jaybird-UK

If a store offers interest free terms then cash discounts are illegal.

Basically if you buy interest free then it has to be the same price/deal offered to a cash buyer.

Buckrogers

In "Comet" the 2.5% goes to Comet as they own the card processing company they use to process their CC transactions.

Yes, why do we not get the 2.5%???

Buckrogers

Not generally true. I paid £1500 for my Sony TV to an independant company some time ago. If I was to use plastic to purchase, 3-5% goes straight to the CC company. Seems fair that he would offer a discount for cash.

Jaybird-UK

you only have to mention 'extended warranty' to get them discounting. Each sales person has to hit a target on warranties & in store finance sold

David Lock

But the stores won't be paying anything like 2.5% for card facilities more like half that amount so they are misleading their customers. Offering a cash discount is a good sales tool and doesn't always mean trader is dodgy. DL

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Buy an extended warranty and you're being ripped off for well over 2.5% of the cost of the goods anyway. Have you seen how expensive they are?

I believe the 'same price' rule is imposed by the c/c companies. If buying with cash were cheaper, people wouldn't use their cards nearly as much - so, they require that retailers offer goods at exactly the same price to the customer to avoid a massive loss of revenue. Any retailer that doesn't offer goods at the same price as for cash, isn't permitted to take credit cards at all.

imlach

Is it not the case that the extended warranties have a 14 day cooling off period? Never tried this, but generally they'll discount the price if you take the warranry, then if you cancel it before 14 days, surely they can't come back to you and not honour the discounted price???