Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia seems to be coming more proactive in the regulation of the business of banking RBA is targeting excessive credit card surcharges.
The ripoff off merchants include big brands such as Qantas, Virgin, and Cabcharge
The Reserve Bank has finally set the sunset clause on the credit and debit card surcharge earner on January 2013, with what they term a variation in surcharging standards.
Credit card surcharging standard: The fly in the ointment
Whilst card companies may stipulate a “reasonable limit" how much merchants can charge consumers for using their credit cards, it does not specify what reasonable means.This will I guess be left to the Trade Practices Act to determine, and regulate, as this seems to fill into the consumer law of equity of contract.
Credit card surcharge standards
And that brings up a question; given the financial services industry's record on setting their own standards, isn't it reasonable that the RBA spend the next six months in talks with the Office of fair trade and the ACCC to nut out some guidelines for these cowboys?But there are some guidelines of what a reasonable limit might include in the various costs that might come with accepting payment by cards. These include actual fees charged by the credit card providers, the cost of terminals and the like.
One card scheme did propose that the “reasonable” cost recovery should include an appraisal of the benefits merchants get by being able to accept card payment – a concept that could have tied up bank vaults of lawyers and sundry consultants for years to come.
Credit card surcharge relief at last
The obvious change to the consumer will be that Cabcharge 10 per cent rort or that flat whack charged by Qantas and Virgin for actually using a credit card to pay for flights or even buy drinks on board!Finally we will get a level playing field in the fringe area of credit card fees and charges, those pushing the envelope surcharges.http://mrmortgage.com.au/
