Card surcharge ban, good or bad?

So as from today there is a ban against companies charging people who opt to pay by card.

Now while I fully agree shoppers shouldn't be charged to spend their own money, however I disagree with how to government have gone about stopping these charges.

Surely a better way of getting rid of these charges would be to stop the card machine companies who are charging businesses a % of every card transaction they take?

It's not fair that the big companies get charged a much lower % than the smaller businesses, surely it should be the other way round? The only reason small businesses apply a surcharge is because the % they have to pay on each payment eats in to their profits quite substantially.

Small companies are the backbone of our economy and we should be helping them not punishing them by eating in to their profits?

What does everybody else think of this?

Personally I always pay with cash when using small businesses anyway, because I understand the system and think they get the shitty end of the stick.

Basically you are arguing against one of the fundamental principles of capitalism - discounted pricing for bulk orders. I know that small businesses need help more than large businesses, but capitalism is competitive and the big players have more purchasing power and can therefore get better prices so it's easier for them to consolidate their position in the market. The natural outcome of capitalism is a monopoly by the biggest fish which will eventually swallow all the others.

No matter who gets charged what, its still, ultimately, the customer that pays.

gloswhite wrote:No matter who gets charged what, its still, ultimately, the customer that pays.

Something we agree about!

I thought the surcharge only applied to credit cards?

Just eat used to charge 50p for card transactions (including debit cards) but now they charge an additional 50p service charge to get around this new law.