One of the most used means of payment by the French. The bank card allows you to pay for your purchases quickly, easily and without too much effort, especially with the arrival of contactless. It can nevertheless cause you some problems, especially if you are the victim of a theft of your bank details, physically or after having used it on a site that is not secure enough.
Sometimes it happens that payment by credit card does not go as planned at a merchant. Can he, for example, refuse this means of payment? As the Public Service website explains, “a merchant can refuse payment by bank card or accept certain cards only”. He may also ask you “to present an identity document”. Finally, he can “require a minimum purchase amount to accept payment by credit card”.
Please note that all of these conditions must be displayed in the merchant’s store. “If he illegally refuses a card payment, you can report it to the Directorate General for Competition, Consumer Affairs and Fraud Prevention,” recalls the Public Service site. If a merchant has the right to refuse payment by credit card, it is also because the latter generates costs, in particular the interbank payment commission. This is the amount paid by the merchant’s bank to the customer’s bank for each card payment, capped at 0.2% for debit cards and 0.3% for credit cards.
If these rules are common and you are not surprised when you are asked for a minimum amount to pay by card, beware of this new trap which increases the amount of your payment if you decide to pay by credit card. Here’s everything you need to know about overcharging.
