No purchase limits allowed

By Corey Friedman

They’re a gas-station staple beside the beef jerky and taped officiously to the cash register — the handwritten signs announcing a $5 or $10 minimum purchase for credit card transactions.

They’re also against the rules.

Visa and MasterCard merchant agreements prohibit businesses from setting minimum or maximum purchase limits, adding a surcharge to credit card purchases or requiring cardholders to show photo ID.

“Always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase,” states the Visa Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines book. “Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts in order to accept a Visa card transaction is a violation of the Visa rules.”

Businesses post and enforce the minimum purchase policies with little resistance because few customers are aware of the terms of their contract with the credit card companies. Fewer happen to have the manuals folded in their back pockets when confronted with such a restriction.

Minimum purchase? Don’t buy it

By Corey Friedman

I saw the sign yesterday at my local mall. Maybe you’ve seen it, too, pinned prominently to a cash register at a store checkout.

“Credit and debit card minimum purchase $3.00.”

Maybe it’s $3, maybe it’s $5, maybe it’s $10 or more. The store only accepts credit or debit if your purchase meets a certain threshold.

What few consumers know is that minimum and maximum transaction limits are a violation of stores’ merchant agreements with Visa, MasterCard and Discover. Credit and debit should be treated like any other form of payment.