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Using a debit card for small amounts

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Home, Law & Money
Does anyone use debit cards to pay for small amounts in shops?
I despise cash, but feel a bit strange paying on card for things under £5... will shops even let you?

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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Some dont but thats coz it costs them to use the machine each time etc.
    Or so I was told.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I used a debit card for a newspaper before. Most big shops will take a debit card for any amount. I hate carrying cash too, so if I cant buy it on card I wont buy it.

    You can even get a McD's hamburger on card now :hyper:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Midcounties Co-op let you use it for any amount, or at least they used to when I worked there. Leeds Co-op don't though.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    There are shops which will not let you use a debit card on orders under £10 without a surchagre of something like 50p to £1. I use one shop and they try and make you spend £10 "other wise you'll be charged 50p". It's funny coz the amount of people that are like "ohhh, better make it up to a tenner then", I don't think they actualy realise that it's better to pay 50p then spend money they don't really need to spend.
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    Indrid ColdIndrid Cold Posts: 16,688 Skive's The Limit
    Makoto wrote: »
    It's funny coz the amount of people that are like "ohhh, better make it up to a tenner then", I don't think they actually realise that it's better to pay 50p then spend money they don't really need to spend.
    That depends. Say you get a bar of chocolate to bring it up to 10.You don't have to eat the chocolate today, it can stay good for a very long time. Then one day that you get a craving for something sweet, you eat the chocolate.
    If you hadn't bought it, and you wanted to eat chocolate, you'd have paid 0.50 more than you had to.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I suppose that depends on how much it will take to add it up to £10.

    like the free delivery on amazon - I always buy another book or something to make it up to the supersaver, rather than pay for first class.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    New challenge for this week: Don't use any cash.

    I reckon it will be alright until Friday night...
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    As much as I hate carrying cash around I find it easier to take cash out at the beginning of the week and use that rather than paying by card all the time. It helps me keep track of my budget.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    only ever carry cash if im off for a night out or off to the footy, other times i just use my card for everythin! helps me to stop impulse spending!
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    LuckyStrike wrote: »
    i just use my card for everythin! helps me to stop impulse spending!

    If i have cash in my pocket, it just goes on rubbish. Spending on card makes me think (a bit) before spending.

    The place I work (until Friday :D ) is all cashless anyway, so you have to buy lunch and snacks on card.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I'm the opposite to you lot, I think. I don't think twice if I'm spending on my card, it doesn't physically disappear from my person so I think I can just keep on spending. I prefer to have my money, then I know what I'm going to buy and how much I have to do it with... of course it requires self-control but I'm getting better at that :D I used to be a total spendthrift.

    I'd never spend small amounts willy-nilly on my card, I'd end up looking my bank statement and thinking I was being robbed. I have enough trouble remembering what the big transactions are :lol:
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    My card makes me think twice with what I'm spending, because I can look at my online statement later and see it all again, and the numbers going down, which makes me sad and guilty! With cash, I can't see the numbers later, so it always feels like it doesn't count ;)
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    briggi wrote: »
    I'm the opposite to you lot, I think. I don't think twice if I'm spending on my card, it doesn't physically disappear from my person so I think I can just keep on spending. I prefer to have my money, then I know what I'm going to buy and how much I have to do it with... of course it requires self-control but I'm getting better at that :D I used to be a total spendthrift.

    I'd never spend small amounts willy-nilly on my card, I'd end up looking my bank statement and thinking I was being robbed. I have enough trouble remembering what the big transactions are :lol:
    I'm just like that. I forget i have used my card and look at my bank and think i've been robbed then look and realise i did actually spend it all. :(
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    drachir wrote: »
    I despise cash, but feel a bit strange paying on card for things under £5... will shops even let you?
    A lot of shops will not allow it. The reason is because of credit and debit card charges. Every time that you pay for something with your card, the company that is responsible for overseeing and authorising the transaction takes a slice of what you've paid. Usually, the charges come up to around £1, but sometimes it can be much higher. This means that shops have to impose a certain minimum on card transactions.

    For example, were you to go to a newsagents tomorrow and buy a newspaper, then attempt to pay for it with your card, the shop would actually lose money as a result. It's far more efficient for a shop to take cash. Card transactions can take a few days to go through, depending on circumstances, whereas with cash, they have the money available to them immediately.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    I bought a chocolate bar and a daily star in the shop the other day, on a debit card

    I think a lot of places now are doing this, though most i have noticed will still go a bit funny about credit cards.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Some places have limits because of the charges of card fees can be quite high, the more money you take, the cheaper your rates tend to be, bigger places wont mind so much as they make enough to cover the costs.

    I hardly use my debit card, and dont really use my credit card apart from online shopping/train tickets, I like taking cash out at the ATM and making it last for as long as possible.
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    Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    stargalaxy wrote: »
    Usually, the charges come up to around £1, but sometimes it can be much higher.

    That's not true... I used to have a merchant account, and for debit cards the fee was 43p (or somewhere near) per transaction. For credit cards, it was a percentage.
    I'm sure most shops negotiate better deals than that as well.
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