The only way this will change is if enough people know the rules and take the time to report it! When I called one of the bigger banks (Chase), and Visa directly, those employees knew immediately what I was talking about. NY’s Better Business Bureau has good information, including contact info:

http://www.newyork.bbb.org/Sit.....b99b3e5d56

No kidding, huh? It’s amazing to hear these small business owners getting self-righteous and playing victim when they’re the ones breaching their contracts. No one forced them to accept credit cards. It’s their choice. So why do they take them? Because they know it’s in their best interest to. They get more business that way. But as someone else mentioned earlier, they want their cake, and eat it, too.

As for “Faith” above claiming that if it weren’t for mom and pop stores, you’d see the price of convenience rise, what the heck are you talking about? Convenience stores always have higher prices than their bigger competitors. That’s why I limit what I buy at convenience stores. It’s part of capitalism. I can easily take my business elsewhere, to a convenience store that plays by the rules, or to a grocery store where the prices are lower. It’s as simple as that.

That said, even after I found out it’s against their agreement, I always used to let it go whenever I see a minimum purchase requirement, b/c I do sympathize with smaller businesses, until one day, the lady behind the counter was rude to me. Then I pointed out the min. purchase requirement, and how there isn’t supposed to be one. Her expression said it all. She was speechless. She knew exactly what I was talking about. That’s when I put down what I was about to buy, and never went there again. I just finished reporting that store, along with another business that has a $20 min. purchase requirement, where they charge $6 for a Bud Light! I did not feel bad at all for reporting them.

So far, I haven’t seen anyone complain about spending $2 to $5 to take their own money out of an ATM.

If we were talking about a straight percentage taken out per sale, things would be much more straightforward. 2% of a $1 sale is no big deal. Is 37% reasonable? Of course not, but merchants pay a minimum transaction fee plus the 2%, so small purchases now lose the merchant money. In businesses that have only small purchases, this is HUGE.

It is not reasonable for GOVERNMENT to legislate how a business charges for their goods, except in a monopoly situation (power companies, cable companies, phone companies). So the few states that have laws forbidding surcharges for small credit purchases are out of line.

We all decry the big banks’ terrible treatment of their “customers” when they charge outrageous fees for petty transgressions, or when they damn near bankrupt the country with their financial derivative investments and sub-prime loans, then take taxpayer monies to bail themselves out, all the while paying out bonuses to the very people that put them into what should have been bankruptcy, but we think it is okay for the big banks to dictate business practices to small merchants…

Mind boggling.

The big banks are the bad guys, folks. They profit from predatory practices, and their monopoly of the credit card industry gives them unwarranted power over the economy and small merchants.

Carry around a $20 bill and be nice to the small merchant… we are just like you.