Ban on card charges being circumvented already

[MB140]

As we all know the recent changes in the rules have recently come in to forces to stop companies charging a fee to use your cards. Great or so I thought.

Just Eat being out weekly treat it always irked me that I had to pay 50p to pay by card and no other option is available I.e cash.

Well my wife an I thought we would order Chinese this evening to discover there is now a 50p service charge. Effectively the little bds have just named it something else and carried on as before.

Now 50p I grant you isn’t a lot but it’s the principal. I suppose this means all the airlines, car dealerships hat used to charge a card fee will now just charge a service fee instead. More importantly these credit card fees were regulated and had limits. These new service charges I can see being another scam as they are no doubt unregulated and will end up being more than the old credit card fees. In fact if you were a smart dealer selling dodgy cars then putting extortionate ‘service charges’ would be a good way of bullying customers out of using a credit card and the protection using them affords you.

[Wacky Racer]

They could just as easily add .50p to their prices if they wanted to. Same difference.

As a customer you can always order elsewhere.

They will (of course) have to pay a % of your bill to the credit card company in fees, so it's not as if they are keeping all the "service fee"

[sidicks]

MB140 said:

As we all know the recent changes in the rules have recently come in to forces to stop companies charging a fee to use your cards. Great or so I thought.

Just Eat being out weekly treat it always irked me that I had to pay 50p to pay by card and no other option is available I.e cash.

Well my wife an I thought we would order Chinese this evening to discover there is now a 50p service charge. Effectively the little bds have just named it something else and carried on as before.

Now 50p I grant you isn’t a lot but it’s the principal. I suppose this means all the airlines, car dealerships hat used to charge a card fee will now just charge a service fee instead. More importantly these credit card fees were regulated and had limits. These new service charges I can see being another scam as they are no doubt unregulated and will end up being more than the old credit card fees. In fact if you were a smart dealer selling dodgy cars then putting extortionate ‘service charges’ would be a good way of bullying customers out of using a credit card and the protection using them affords you.

Do you think it doesn't cost businesses to use credit card suppliers?

[MB140]

The initial message was deleted from this topic on 14 January 2018 at 20:43

[ralphrj]

MB140 said:

Well my wife an I thought we would order Chinese this evening to discover there is now a 50p service charge. Effectively the little bds have just named it something else and carried on as before.

I believe that as a result of the ban on credit card fees Just Eat now charge 50p on every order irrespective of how you pay.

[SmoothCriminal]

I used to use just eat but the principle of a 50p service charge for them doing basically fk all even tho i use cash means...

I now search their platform for a takeaway

Place the items I want in the basket.

Google said takeaway.

Phone and place order.

Close down just eat.

Inb4 should be well built company director worrying about 50p....

[MysteryLemon]

So, just order with the take away directly then?

Out local Chinese is cheaper if you order through their own website or on the phone and the delivery charge is cheaper too. They also text offers most weeks which only apply through themselves.

[vikingaero]

Why do you guys use Just Eat? I personally would spend my money direct with the takeaway. Do you not realise that the Just Eat get 30% of the spend?
Can you not purchase with an app or is the occasional £5/20% off too good?

I'm going to go further. There are a few good takeaways on JE/HH, but mkst takeaways on Just Eat and Hungry House are the average to mediocre. If you have a takeaway turning over 8-10k on a Saturday night you're not going to need the middlemen. The takeaways doing £200 on a Saturday night are.

I do love this BS from JE:

""Previously only customers who paid online were charged - we don’t think it’s fair for online payment customers to shoulder the costs associated with cash orders too, which is why we’re introducing a charge applied equally across our customer base. "

[MB140]

SmoothCriminal said:

I used to use just eat but the principle of a 50p service charge for them doing basically fk all even tho i use cash means...

I now search their platform for a takeaway

Place the items I want in the basket.

Google said takeaway.

Phone and place order.

Close down just eat.

Inb4 should be well built company director worrying about 50p....

This is exactly what I will do. I will use just eat solely for the menu.

[MB140]

sidicks said:

MB140 said:

As we all know the recent changes in the rules have recently come in to forces to stop companies charging a fee to use your cards. Great or so I thought.

Just Eat being out weekly treat it always irked me that I had to pay 50p to pay by card and no other option is available I.e cash.

Well my wife an I thought we would order Chinese this evening to discover there is now a 50p service charge. Effectively the little bds have just named it something else and carried on as before.

Now 50p I grant you isn’t a lot but it’s the principal. I suppose this means all the airlines, car dealerships hat used to charge a card fee will now just charge a service fee instead. More importantly these credit card fees were regulated and had limits. These new service charges I can see being another scam as they are no doubt unregulated and will end up being more than the old credit card fees. In fact if you were a smart dealer selling dodgy cars then putting extortionate ‘service charges’ would be a good way of bullying customers out of using a credit card and the protection using them affords you.

Do you think it doesn't cost businesses to use credit card suppliers?

Then why did the EU go to all the trouble of banning them. Oh I know the fees charged are often multiple times the cost they incur as a business. This was meant to be a law to stop this. In effect it has just opened and then up to charge what they like.

I wonder if this will be the next PPI solicitors get rich quick scheme.

[matjk]

One advantage Just Eat have over going direct is they tend to prioritise the Just Eat stuff going out over their own orders ! As ridiculous as that sounds ! I can call my local curry place and be told it’s an hour wait , order on Just east and it’s delivery in 20 mins. I think Just Eat monitors they delivery performance

[alorotom]

I’ve got a reasonably good relationship with my local purveyor of pizzas and kebabs and we were chatting a few weeks ago about why I always order via JE and for me it’s simple, I NEVER carry and cash, and pay on card for everything as it’s easier for me

For reference I’ve just checked and I last used a cash machine (in the U.K.) in August ... I haven’t handled any “real money” since

[vikingaero]

Can I just say that I love Just Eat. The bullst gets better:

"Hi Dave , every order is a cost to administer. The 50p service charge to customers covers this cost and our investment in the innovations and services our customers want. 1/3"

Innovations? What innovations? You're a poxy app/web based ordering service, not the next cure for cancer. Some people/companies are so self-important.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

I don't know why anyone has interfered in this with stupid legislation. Paying by card costs the seller, so why shouldn't they pass that cost on. What about firms selling high ticket items for low commission? A travel agent might sell a £5K holiday for 5% commission. £250. If their card provider charges 2.5%, which is typical, that's half their profit!! Of course they should be able to pass this onto the punter.

I wish the EU and government would just leave business alone to get on with being businesses. If they rip off their customers, someone else will start up who doesn't and put them out of business.

[red_slr]

I ordered on JE last night and *paid cash* and today noticed there was a 50p service charge... WTF.

That really is a dickish move.

[V8mate]

MB140 said:

SmoothCriminal said:

I used to use just eat but the principle of a 50p service charge for them doing basically fk all even tho i use cash means...

I now search their platform for a takeaway

Place the items I want in the basket.

Google said takeaway.

Phone and place order.

Close down just eat.

Inb4 should be well built company director worrying about 50p....

This is exactly what I will do. I will use just eat solely for the menu.

Will that have saved the takeaway itself money too? (do they pay Just Eat a % of each order value?)

[Wombat3]

This stuff makes me laugh.

Its no different to how the legislation that has forced mobile operators to reduce roaming charges & charges to landline operators to terminate calls coming in from landlines means that all of a sudden, "no you can't have a £20 a month contract and an iPhone X for free".

And people seem surprised by it.

This stuff is like squashing one end of a balloon - inevitably the other end will get larger. They might as well try & nail jelly to a wall

Meanwhile, quietly, I think this card legislation also means that debit cards (which used to cost peanuts to process) now cost the same as credit cards. Sometimes it might be better if the beaurocrats just left well alone.

[MB140]

I know in the case of just eat it’s inly 50p, my concern is more the likes of our favourite Irish airline who would charge you for a sheet of bog paper if he could. What’s to stop them just sticking stupidly over inflated services charges on that are now no regulated.

My wife and I holiday with Thomsons (tui), paying to sit next to the same people you book your flight with is another con. I’m waiting for the day when someone just dumps a 10 year old in the middle of a plane as they refuse to pay to sit next to there own child.

Just pure ish daylight robbery. Another practice that should be banned. If it was up to me I would sit anywhere but my wife doesn’t like flying so insists on paying extra to sit together.

[NickCQ]

I really don't understand the logic behind this policy.

Previously, where my choice of card would cost the retailer more (usually Amex), they could charge the extra to me, which seems fair (notwithstanding that charges could sometimes be many multiples of the true incremental cost).

Now, the retailer can either refuse to take cards that are more expensive to process or everyone else has to subsidise my airmiles? Not sure I understand why that's a more desirable situation. This could be the beginning of the end for the Amex-style rewards model.

[Wombat3]

NickCQ said:

I really don't understand the logic behind this policy.

Previously, where my choice of card would cost the retailer more (usually Amex), they could charge the extra to me, which seems fair (notwithstanding that charges could sometimes be many multiples of the true incremental cost).

Now, the retailer can either refuse to take cards that are more expensive to process or everyone else has to subsidise my airmiles? Not sure I understand why that's a more desirable situation. This could be the beginning of the end for the Amex-style rewards model.

Businesses have been selective about taking things like Amex for years though. And with good reason, their charges are hideous as is their accounting. They vary their charges by the type of business activity you are engaged in as far as we can gather . Charges are as high as 5% at least in some cases. Not only that their accounting is hideous too.

If you take an Amex transaction of £100 with a 5% fee, you get £95 remitted. Now you have an invoice to a customer for £100 but a receipt of only £95 and then you get another invoice from Amex at the end of the month for £5. Multiply that by many transactions & its an accounting nightmare (they send one invoice at the end of the month for all the transactions you have processed which you then have to relate back to umpteen customer transactions.

With Visa/MasterCard you bill £100, you receive £100 then you get a bill for card charges at the end of the month which you pay the merchant services provider separately. Much easier.

What most punters also don't realise is that not all Visa (or MasterCard) cards are the same though

Business cards cost far more to process than personal ones. Store backed or rewards cards are the same. The charges can be more than double a bog standard bank issued Visa or MasterCard card. Cardholder not present transactions (i.e. internet or telephone) & international (foreign issued) cards carry a premium as well.

Its a minefield.