P.E.I. companies reluctant to cost bank card charges to prospects

Traditionally bank card transaction charges have been charged on to retailers, however earlier this month, Visa, MasterCard and different card suppliers settled an extended authorized battle on the difficulty of who pays bank card processing charges.

Now, retailers are capable of go the price on to the shopper, charging them each time they use their bank card.

Some small companies on P.E.I. aren’t keen to try this although.

“We’re residing via a interval of excessive inflation and I do not assume now could be the time to do one thing like that,” says Dan MacDonald, co-owner of the Bookmark in Charlottetown.

“I feel there are most likely different steps that ought to be taken earlier than that may be a consideration.”

The brand new guidelines got here into impact Oct. 6. Retailers should give card suppliers 30 days’ discover of their intent to start out charging a payment. Retailers are additionally obligated to ensure prospects know on the time of cost there’s a surcharge. That surcharge is capped at 2.4 per cent.

Companies have been coping with the cost for years and it is already constructed into the “expense construction” for the Bookmark, MacDonald stated.

“In our enterprise it’s simply over $30,000 a yr that we pay to the bank card firms for the processing charges. I feel the federal government ought to take a look at what different international locations are doing when it comes to limiting what the banks and bank card firms can cost companies,” he stated.

In different elements of the world such because the UK, the European Union and Australia; the charges, generally known as interchange charges, are capped at 1.4 per cent.

Tracy Money, proprietor of As soon as Upon a Marriage ceremony close to Traveller’s Relaxation does not plan to place the additional payment on her prospects who use bank cards.

“I feel it’s simply one thing that’s a part of the price of doing enterprise,” Money stated.

Nonetheless, Money thinks it is an excellent possibility for companies who could be hurting on account of charges.

In these circumstances, “prospects do have an choice to play with debit or pay with money to keep away from these costs,” she stated.

Passing the payment to prospects just isn’t taking place in all the nation. In Quebec passing the transaction payment to customers is prohibited underneath the province’s Client Safety Act.