Mosman eatery slaps high credit card charges on customers
Mosman is not the cheapest suburb to visit.
It now looks like it’s becoming more expensive with some restaurants there charging up to 5 per cent on credit card transactions.
That’s despite a ban being introduced as to the amount that retailers can charge. In effect, they are ignoring the recent 1 per cent and 1.5 per cent rule introduced in Australia.
The new rules have banned all Australian businesses from slugging customers with excessive surcharges for using EFTPOS and credit cards to pay for purchases. The rules came into place on September 1.
The rules mean businesses can only charge customers what it actually costs them to process payments for EFTPOS, MasterCard, Visa and American Express cards, including bank fees and terminal costs.
But there might be some restaurants ignoring this. One example is Basil Nut, a Mosman Thai restaurant.
Smart Office correspondent Jon Bragg discovered this when he got handed his bill for a takeaway meal.
He pointed out to management what the new rules were.
Their response: it was “because of bank fees”.
They were not interested in complying with the rules, pointing out to Bragg that they are a small business so it’s ok to charge the additional 5 per cent fee. As they said, it’s “the way we do business”.
That would not please the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. The ACCC is not making any allowances for the size of the business.
When the regulator brought in the new rule, it made it clear that it would extend to all businesses that are either based in Australia or use an Australian bank. That’s regardless of size.
“Our message to business is that you are not allowed to add on any of your own internal costs when calculating what surcharge you will charge customers,” ACCC deputy chairman Michael Schaper said in a statement at the time.
“The only costs businesses can include are external costs charged to you by your financial provider.
“Our advice for businesses wanting to set a single surcharge regardless of the type of card their customers use, is it must be the lowest of all the payment methods. You can’t use an average of all payment methods or you will land yourself in trouble.”
by Leon Gettler, November 16th 2017
