Nice piece of info there, Neil. Been in this situation quite a few times. Definitely worth the share!

Cheers!
VJ

I paid this 2% tax more than 30+ times in different situation for my Indian Overseas Visa card :/


Thanks a lot mate.
Now I'll give them a good reply.


By the way, how does it feel to see your 3 year old post getting Likes ?

nice info here, i have myself paid this 2% extra so many times, and i am sure everybody has... next time onwards i will atleast raise my voice or decline to purchase anything from that shop.

btw, this is an old thread, so anybody has any updates on current rules & regulations.

Thanks for sharing mate.

Same happened to me many times, though i thought that was legal. Now will see how the hell they charge it now!

happned with me today at wine shop, he charged 2% extra, i raised my voice but he didn't agree, so i paid and lodged a complaint on bank of baroda website (he was using bank of baroda machine). lets see what hpns..

you can refer to this article :
Don't pay 2% extra on credit card purchases : Rupee Times

I recently used this article for not paying the 2% extra on a cc payment of Rs. 3500. Showed the manager this article on my mobile & later he agreed to wave off my 2% & asked me not to reveal this to others

Let's Gear up Riding Gear store in Bangalore charges 2% extra.

I was in a hurry and wanted to pay via my credit card so had to pay the 2%, which was almost 200 bux!

Damn!!

a lot of misconception is being purported about:

Card business has boomed in last 3 years in India & slated to grow at a phenomenal rate in upcoming years.

for a first the transaction acquiring business works on different models:

1)The bank approaches the merchant/dealer/retailer whoever they see as a potential media having a lot of card transaction.case in point petrol bunk owners in class A & B cities.
In this case the EDC (electronic data capture) terminal/pos is given to the merchant.in this case only the card holders are charged a fee (waived in cases of special cards in which case no one makes extra money).in other cases 90% of them it works the following way:

a)issuing bank :the one who issues us the card
b) acquirer bank :the bank who has a certified switch which handles the transactions
c)visa/master:the facilitators

A typical transaction works like this:
i)card is swiped
ii)info goes to issuing bank from where it is routed to acquiring bank switch
iii)acquirer authorizes it alongwith visa/master
iv)transaction done

In this case the 2/2.5/5 % is distributed amongst all three entities depending on the contracts in place.
In this case the dealer also gets some percentage depending on the total amount of business generated from that terminal.

The second case is when the dealer asks for POS terminal to handle his customers.
In this case the issuing bank charges a first one time fee for hardware as well as a monthly fee for connectivity or dealer pays his own connectivity bills.
even here all the 3 entities get the same percentages but in this case it is the dealer who has to pay the additional surcharge according to banks

now consider this scenario.in a cost competitive market like electronics & stuff wherein the end customer (us) is aware enough of the prevailing market rates the cost of the product is the only scale to measure the final buying decision.In this case the merchants work on very thin margins.so the extra 2% is what they ask the customer to pay as it is not something which he pockets but rather has to give to the banks.

it is a good practice that atleast they inform you about this as opposed to lot many merchants who built in this cost in the final product & the customer is none the wiser whether he pays by cash or card.

in a near future scenario CC acquiring business is what will keep many of the banks floating in terms of bottom line figures as a result of which they are doing everything in their capacity to propel india towards cashless transactions.