This is one of those little aggravating things that I finally decided to blog about. Have you ever been to a convience store (or some merchant) that required you to purchase at least $5 in order to use your credit card? I’ve encountered this a few times when I stop to get my kids a Dr. Pepper or something – and I don’t really want to buy anything else.
If you have, then that merchant is violating the terms of service with Visa and/or MasterCard. You should inform them of that also.
Yeah – I know full well how the credit card processing works. I have a small business too, and I accept credit cards. I also have the cost of processing cards built into my pricing structure.
MasterCard Minimum Purchase
http://www.mastercard.com/us/business/en/common/faq.html#211
Visa Minimum Purchase
http://usa.visa.com/about_visa/ask_visa/index.html#anchor_4