| Address: Pune, Maharashtra |
Hi,
I have recently booked honda active at Sterling Honda showroom. I visited the showroom to make the remaining payment and asked them to swipe my card - receptionist told me that we charge extra 2% for the swipe which I refused to pay... I contacted showroom manager to clarify this however the kind of response I got from him was unacceptable - he said we are selling bike from ages and we charge 2% extra on all swipes, if you want to pay then its fine or go outside and get cash which was real frustrating and insulting for me... it was embarrassing for me to listen this non-sense when I actually need not to pay extra – I believe it is merchant who has to pay the additional service charges for all the transactions made on his machine – isn’t it?
Why is there an additional charge of 2% if I swipe my card at this showroom? No other showroom/malls/shops charges extra? Isn't it illegal?
This practice of charging an additional fee is called ‘surcharging, ’ said Mr Subrat Pani, Business Head-Cards, Kotak Mahindra Bank. It is not permitted as per the agreement entered into by the merchant and the bank, which sets up the point-of-sales machine. “It is not permitted as per Visa and MasterCard rules. The acquiring bank can terminate the POS facility, ” Mr Pani said.
When a bank sets up a POS machine, it charges a merchant fee from the merchant establishment, for swiping debit or credit cards. In some cases, the merchants try to pass on this charge to the customers by charging extra.
Mr Sachin Khandelwal, Head, Retail Assets, ICICI Bank, said, typically, the stores that insist on an additional fee in case of a credit or debit card transaction are those that don’t get a lot of business through cards. Larger shops don’t charge extra fees because they get about 35-40 per cent from cards and don’t wish to lose customers, he said.
“Merchants are not supposed to charge any extra fee for using card Was this information helpful? | 
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