St. Vincent de Paul Credit Card "Surcharge"

My mom just got a $30 surcharge put on her credit card by the lovely charity thrift store, St. Vincent de Paul. This was for the purchase of a $4.00 blanket. She did not realize they were charging her for using her credit card until they gave her the slip to sign, and sure, it's her 'own fault' she didn't speak up and cancel everything then, but like so many other elderly people in our country, she wasn't assertive enough to speak up right in the middle of being so shocked at what she was experiencing.

It is a crying shame that they could mis-treat elderly people this way. Perhaps they had a sign saying this was their policy; I don't know I wasn't there. Nevertheless they should **** ALWAYS **** tell anyone who pulls out a credit card that this is what is going to happen to them BEFORE they ring up the purchase!

Damn. If it costs that much for them to process the charges, maybe they should just stop accepting credit cards for purchases of less that $50 or something. That's a low-down thing to do (and if they don't have a sign or told her that was the policy, I suspect it's not quite legal).

Sympathies to your mom.

:wtf:

I don't know if I have ever heard of that. I do know that some gas station will add five cents or so per gallon, to cover the credit card fees, but that is nowhere close to 30 bucks.

If this is store policy , I'd write the bishop, the diocesan newspaper and local parishes.

Maybe the cashier is up to something.

http://consumerist.com/5028913/more-on-minimum-purchases-surcharges-and-other-credit-card-merchant-agreement-violations-from-the-companies-themselves

This is a violation of the Merchant agreement.

they could lose their Merchant Account.

the credit card company way not waive it.

They may consider it a "donation/surcharge", and may "offer" it as a potential "deduction".. scammy & deceptive..

That is really unethical. I would call and speak to the management about this and I would keep going up the chain until you get some satisfaction.

One other suggestion is some local newspapers or news channels have a reporter who handles consumer rip-off schemes...you could try contacting one of them about it.

I had a problem with St. Vincent de Paul not long ago about some items I intended to donate to them. They looked at me like I was crazy when I asked for a hand getting a couple awkward, heavy things out of the car and then got snarky with me about where they wanted me to put the stuff because it would not fit in their miniscule donation bin. I left and ended up donating it all to another thrift store who acted like human beings when I asked for help for getting the heavy stuff out of the car.

Good luck, I hope you can get that $30 back for your mom, that is just NOT right.

All of the major credit card companies prohibit a store from requiring a minimum purchase amount or charging a fee to use a credit card. Your mom should call her credit card issuer ASAP. They will likely tell her to formally dispute the charge. Make sure she keeps the receipt and credit card sales draft.

$30 for surcharge is absolutely a mistake on someone's part.

It really isn't right that this "business"/charity decided not to act like most normal businesses and allow you to use the credit card without charging extra. Imagine, a charity screwing over a customer. That's not right.

On the other had, wouldn't it be nice if all businesses charged a surcharge for using a credit card? I understand that the courts have ruled against these surcharges on cc's. As a result, the business must pay for the fee that is charged when a consumer uses a cc. Eventually businesses just incorporate that fee into the price of the goods and services they sell. So cash-paying customers pick up part of the cost of credit cards. That's not right.

Oh well, just another reason to hate the immorality of usury that defines credit card companies.

i had this out with a subway owner. A 6 dollar minimum , obviously a 5 dollar footlong was his issue. They can ask customers not to use cards, but can not add fees. If they do Visa will warn them and then remove the service for a period of time.

The charge can be contested.

some places charge 25 or 30 CENTS if the purchase in under $5 to use a credit card. NOT $30 - Most likely it was an honest blunder, not a dishonest one and if your mom didn't say anything how could they know to correct the mistake.

This seems more like an error, given the high amount.

If it was, every business would be doing it. Call the BBB and your state's Atty. General.

call the cc company and get that taken off immediately

and got hit with a ISF fee?

And return the blanket. It probably has bed bugs anyway.

Since it is still a long-holiday weekend, I didn't get to talk to a live person nor do I know yet what I will hear back. I called the St. Vincent's store and left a detailed voicemail including my name and phone number, and I emailed the BBB with a complaint form. I'm thinking of going further with reporting this as this is a small town and I would like word to get out.

BTW -- it wasn't a 'mistake;' my mom said something and was told it was a charge. To you elderly people who think I am stereotyping, I am not, my mom is one of those people who has difficulty being assertive and / or understanding her rights. I was certainly not saying everybody of a certain age has this problem, my meaning was people of the older generation grew up in a world where honest business practices were the norm, and SOME PEOPLE are not prepared to know how to deal with being confronted by an in-your-face offense such as this.

I was a bit upset with my mom for not standing up for herself at the time it happened, but that is what happened to her. You hear about older people getting scammed by phone calls; this is just something else that I think is along the same lines.

I will encourage her when I see her to report this to her credit card company too, and will post here what I find out comes of it all.

I also emailed a complaint form to the state Occupational Licensing Division.

The thing about me and my mom is that I can not push her to do anything she doesn't want to do and while I can REPORT this happened, so that hopefully this company doesn't get away with it, if she says forget it and let it go (which she sometimes has done in the past when she got badly 'stepped on') I can not follow through all the way by going through her credit card company, but will gladly make the call for her in her presence if she accepts my request that we follow up on this.