credit card minimums

today at lunch i encountered an incident regarding 'minimum transaction amounts' that some stores/restaurants require to process a credit card. Usually its no less than $2 or $5. I had heard that they actually can't do that. The situation wasn't resolved very happily on the restaurant's part and it motivated me to google it. (im an eager researcher) Sure enough, it's a violation of the major credit card companies' agreements with the merchants to impose a minimum charge amount.

The Consumerist wrote a very lengthy and complete article regarding this fact. There are links to the credit card companies' merchant agreements that very clearly state that merchants cannot require minimum charges.

Mastercard states: 9.12.3 Minimum/Maximum Transaction Amount Prohibited
A merchant must not require, or post signs indicating that it requires, a minimum or maximum transaction amount to accept a valid MasterCard card.

Visa states: Dollar Minimums and Maximums - Always honor valid Visa cards, in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase. Imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts is a violation.

Discover states: 3.6 Minimum/Maximum Dollar Limits and Other Limits You may not require that any Cardmember make a minimum dollar purchase in order to use a Card and, other than when we have not authorized a Cardmember's transaction, you may not limit the maximum amount that a Cardmember may spend when using a Card.

So there! Maybe the stores need a gentle reminder of the agreement they made with the credit card companies when they started accepting the cards. I understand that there is a fee that the merchant must pay per transaction, and I do try to impose my own limit.. Perhaps the merchants need to band together to lower the per-transaction fees on the smaller amount charges.