CART Credit Card Charges

[DustyDave]

Hi,

 

does anybody know if CART are charging an unreasonably high amount for paying the license fee by credit card? They add on £7.50 for credit card payments. From what I've read they can only charge the cost which is above the cost for other payment methods i.e. if debit card company charges 2 percent and credit card charges 4 percent they can only charge 2 percent as they offer debit card payment for free.

 

What I don't know is what sort of fees CART are being charged by the credit and debit card companies. That makes it impossible to contact them about unreasonable credit card charges. Does anybody know what they're likely to get charged?

 

Dave

[carlt]

Do they not still charge extra for Direct Debit payments, rather than the more usual offering of a discount if you use that method?

Edited April 8, 2013 by carlt

[onionbargee]

costs around 40p per transaction for a very small buisiness.

[Jerra]

Hi,

 

does anybody know if CART are charging an unreasonably high amount for paying the license fee by credit card? They add on £7.50 for credit card payments. From what I've read they can only charge the cost which is above the cost for other payment methods i.e. if debit card company charges 2 percent and credit card charges 4 percent they can only charge 2 percent as they offer debit card payment for free.

 

What I don't know is what sort of fees CART are being charged by the credit and debit card companies. That makes it impossible to contact them about unreasonable credit card charges. Does anybody know what they're likely to get charged?

 

Dave

 

I will be amazed if CRT are being charged anything approaching 4% for credit cards. Before we retired and closed the shops credit cards were between 1.5 and 2% can't remember the exact figure but less than 2% Debit cards were a flat rate of around 45p. These rates were negotiated by a national professional organisation.

 

However I would assume CRT has quite a bit of trade over a year and so should be able to get a lower rate than 4%

[onionbargee]

the money grabbing barstools !

[churchward]

Hi,

 

does anybody know if CART are charging an unreasonably high amount for paying the license fee by credit card? They add on £7.50 for credit card payments. From what I've read they can only charge the cost which is above the cost for other payment methods i.e. if debit card company charges 2 percent and credit card charges 4 percent they can only charge 2 percent as they offer debit card payment for free.

 

What I don't know is what sort of fees CART are being charged by the credit and debit card companies. That makes it impossible to contact them about unreasonable credit card charges. Does anybody know what they're likely to get charged?

 

Dave

The "cost only" charge for credit card purchases surcharge has only just been announced and may not be in force yet. Until it is companies (CRT included) like airlines etc can charge a "reasonable amount" to process a credit card transaction. trouble is your and my idea of what is reasonable often does not coincide with their idea.

 

Actually I have just looked it up. The new legislation comes into force this Saturday (13/04/13)

[cotswoldsman]

Credit card companies charge anything from 1-4% so if your licence is arroind £600 seems quite reasonable to me they charge nothing for debit cards

[Hastings]

Credit card companies charge anything from 1-4% so if your licence is arroind £600 seems quite reasonable to me they charge nothing for debit cards

Compared to CRT, we have a low turnover. We pay 12p for debit cards, and about 1.25% for credit card use. It actually varies a bit from one type of credit card to another. No doubt CRT can negotiate cheaper rates, but taking a typical licence as say £700, then £7 is probably reasonable for credit cards.

 

Having said that, we absorb the charges in our business, and the other advantage is that it avoids us having lots of cash, which costs us a fee to pay into the bank. I sometimes wish more people would pay by card ....

[Fat Boat]

we noticed that when we had to get an emergency winter mooring for a friend, seems to be their flat fee not a % charge

 

he had no internet access and was told very bluntly by a lady that there was no ability to take a payment over the phone at all even if he had no internet access

 

I called back on his behalf and was told that they could do it by post, but it takes 3 weeks and i quote " most people do not phone up on the day they require a mooring"

 

as it happened my mate is an old boy who had some bad test results from the hospital and was advised not to move the boat for 4 - 6 weeks

 

as he knew this meant an overstay he thought it best to get a one month winter mooring so he wasnt breaking any rules, we told him to call cart but he said that he hoped to be better again soon and wanted to do the right thing.

 

We helped him out on our laptop and were very surprised by the amount, especially when the fee was for 1 month mooring

 

seems strange to me that they can no longer take phone payments, most other organisations do

Edited April 8, 2013 by Fat Boat

[the grinch]

we are seriously concidering ending card payments as we are being ripped by the card company and the processing company (cardsave/streamline) now they have introduced yet another stealth tax onto the already high fees its fast becoming unsustainable to accept cards obviously Cart are bigger users than us but will still be paying a silly amount for the privilege!

[kevinl]

Hi Dave

 

I think you might have misread the new regulations. They cannot charge more than is reasonable over of the costs they incur, so if they pay 2% to the credit card company they can charge you 2% + a bit. You can't really expect them to charge the fee of the lowest payment method then you use the highest cost payment method and expect them to soak up the difference. Debit cards are usually free because they charge so little 50p of so out of a £1,000 transaction, but if they pay 2% to a credit card company that's £20.

Hi,

does anybody know if CART are charging an unreasonably high amount for paying the license fee by credit card? They add on £7.50 for credit card payments. From what I've read they can only charge the cost which is above the cost for other payment methods i.e. if debit card company charges 2 percent and credit card charges 4 percent they can only charge 2 percent as they offer debit card payment for free.

What I don't know is what sort of fees CART are being charged by the credit and debit card companies. That makes it impossible to contact them about unreasonable credit card charges. Does anybody know what they're likely to get charged?

Dave

[sueb]

I paid for a three month mooring, by debit card, over the phone this month. I don't believe I was charged extra

[alan_fincher]

I paid for a three month mooring, by debit card, over the phone this month. I don't believe I was charged extra

You will not have been if it was a debit card. CRT only apply the £7.50 surcharge if paying by credit card.

[Morat]

Tell them you only pay by paypal or cash.