![]() If your card is unsigned and you’ve left the signature line blank, your card is technically not valid. In the event that there is a discrepancy, or if the back of the card is unsigned, then merchants are instructed to ask for a photo ID to compare with. Therefore, merchants cannot… refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID.”īased on that, Visa recommends its merchants not spend time asking for ID.Īt the time of purchase, when a customer swipes their card, the merchant is supposed to compare the signature on the card with the signature on the receipt. It says, “Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID… merchants cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. The Visa merchant guide is a little different. MasterCard says a merchant “may request but not require” a customer to show ID, and American Express simply instructs merchants to “verify that the customer is the Cardmember.” In general, merchants can check your ID, but usually won’t. Writing the words “See ID” on the back of your card doesn’t actually help you. ![]() ![]() Sometimes merchants are supposed to ask to see your ID, and sometimes they’re not. Can a merchant ask to see my ID? / I wrote ‘See ID’ on my card, so I am protected from fraud… right? So when you see a gas station charging $3.79 a gallon but “$3.69 cash,” that’s well within the terms of their merchant agreement and the law. It works out roughly the same in the end for customers, but offering an incentive (a discount) for paying with cash is totally legal and doesn’t get into the morass of conditions and regulations. To avoid them, many merchants offer a discount for using cash rather than charging a fee for using credit cards. In 2013, those states were California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Kansas, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Oklahoma, and Texas. Visa has a flowchart ( PDF) for their merchants that lists the ten states where surcharges are illegal. The fee only applies to credit cards, and not to debit cards.Īnd on top of all that, the law varies from state to state. Merchants can only charge so much for one card (MasterCard or Visa) depending on what their agreements with competing products (Visa or MasterCard) say. There are variable maximums for how high the fee can be. Merchants can only charge so high a fee relative to the average annual cost of transactions. There are conditions, though, and lots of them. Since a legal settlement in 2013, merchants have been able to charge their customers additional surcharges for paying with a credit card. Yes, they can - and that’s a relatively new thing. Can a merchant charge more (or add a fee) for using a credit card? So in practice, pretty much any merchant that takes plastic that has a minimum threshold sets it the same (and lower than $10) across all card types. The American Express merchant agreement ( PDF) contains similar language. The MasterCard agreement also specifies that a merchant may not establish a different minimum for “MasterCard and another acceptance brand,” which basically translates to “if you want to take MasterCard, your minimum transaction threshold needs to be the same for every credit card user.” must apply equally to card types from all issuers - so a Signature card or a Gold card from Capital One or from Chase all face the same minimum.For both MasterCard and for Visa, the minimum purchase amount… According to both the Visa ( PDF) and MasterCard ( PDF) merchant agreements, a merchant may set a minimum transaction threshold for credit card purchases. Can a merchant set a minimum purchase amount for credit card transactions? Six years ago, Consumerist answered your questions about these rules and others.īut since then, the law has changed, and so have the agreements the credit card companies have with the merchants who accept plastic. What needs signing, and what doesn’t? When can a store ask for ID? Are they allowed to charge different prices for cash and credit? But the scene isn’t just complicated for cardholders it’s complicated for the retailers that accept them, too. Credit cards come with a lot of fine print.
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