WALL – For payments made by credit card, many businesses ask their customers “Cash or credit card?” asks the question. In payments made with credit cards, which have become the lifeline of consumers in difficult economic conditions, some businesses charge a commission fee to their customers’ shopping. Experts say that this commission is illegal.
Lawyer Bahadırhan Tabak states that these fees collected from customers are left to businesses and says that businesses gain informally from the pennies received in cash purchases.
‘WORKPLACES WHICH RECEIVE EXTRA FEE FROM CUSTOMERS MAY FACE FINES’
Stating that commissions received for credit card transactions in some markets, workplaces (hairdressers, grocery stores) and bill payment businesses are very common, Tabak said, “Recently, the extra charge for card payments in vehicle inspections, similarly, has been met with a reaction and this issue has come up again. With a debit card. It is absolutely illegal to charge extra fees for payments made by credit card or by credit card.We have a legal regulation regarding this.According to Article 17 of the Debit Cards and Credit Cards Law published in 2006, member businesses do not impose any additional fees on their card payments, including discount periods. They have to accept without asking.
Here, an obligation has fallen to the organization that has signed a POS device contract with the member workplace. The organization, which has made a POS agreement with the member workplace, can terminate the agreement if it detects the illegal practice of the workplace as we mentioned, and the organization must not make a new contract with the same workplace for one year. Again, according to the 40th article of the same law, it is foreseen that the officials and related members who actually manage the workplaces who receive extra fees from this credit card payment will be punished with a judicial fine of up to one thousand days. To summarize, businesses that collect extra fees from customers who want to pay by debit or credit card in this way may face both the termination of POS agreements and the sanction of judicial fines.
‘EXTRA CHARGES COLLECTED FROM CUSTOMERS ARE LEFT TO BUSINESSES’
Answering our question about whether these commissions received from customers are left to banks or businesses, Tabak said, “Businesses pay a certain amount of commission to the contracted institution from the credit card payments they collect under the POS device agreement. This is a subject that may vary depending on the content of the contract between the enterprise and the bank. However, the business does not have the right to reflect this to the customer. As I mentioned, this practice is already prohibited by direct law,” he says and adds:
“Businesses have to collect the same amount from the customer who wants to pay with a credit card, whatever the price is for the customer paying in cash. At the end of the day, the amount of commission the business will pay to the bank within the scope of the agreement with the bank is not a situation that concerns the customer. For this reason, businesses have to pay the bank. We can say that they only pay the price they are obliged to fulfill in accordance with the POS device contract, and the extra fees they collect from the customers are left to the businesses.”
‘WITH COMPLAINTS, UNFORGETTABLE EARNINGS WILL BE PREVENTED’
Tabak states that in such a case, customers can file a complaint with the bank with the POS device contract of the workplace or directly from the e-complaint section on the website of the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK). . Tabak said, “We can even see that in some workplaces, this extra fee request is clearly written on the price tag of the products as ‘if paid in cash, this much if paid with cards’. Photographs of these can also be submitted to the bank or institution when making a complaint,” he says.
Noting that customers generally avoid making such complaints because the amount is small, Tabak said, “Even though the amounts are small, when these extra fees accumulate, businesses can reach large amounts and continue this practice because they do not face complaints. will end it and unfair profits will be prevented,” he said.
‘CONSUMER REVIEW BOARD MUST BE APPLIED’
Tabak states that it is not possible to get the refund of the extra fee paid to the workplace from the bank, but points to the Consumer Arbitration Committee:
“At this point, the bank is only tasked with terminating the contract it has made with the merchant, and it has no obligation to pay the overpaid fees to the consumer. Consumers must apply to the Consumer Arbitration Committee within the scope of the Consumer Protection Law for the refund of these fees. They can request the refund of the extra fee collected illegally by applying to the Delegation.
PENS NOT RECEIVED AND MILLIONS OF EARNINGS
Tabak also evaluated that many consumers do not take their pennies in cash payments and that businesses do not make penny payments.“When the customer requests change, the answer is ‘no damage’. In such businesses, where a lot of daily trading takes place, the pennies that are not given to the customer as change can reach huge figures on a monthly or annual basis. The informal collection of all this amount not only reflects on the customer’s pocket in total, but also creates an unregistered income that cannot be taxed by the state.”
In terms of this practice, Tabak concludes his words as follows:
“In such a case, the business should either price it exactly, not 99 cents, and show exactly what it collects on the receipt, or it should keep enough pennies to give to the customer as change. Otherwise, it is inevitable that an informal economy will be in question. He should not hesitate to ask for the change by saying that 10 cents will be nothing, and should remember the unregistered earnings that occur on an annual basis, perhaps reaching millions.”
The BRSA, whose opinions we asked about the subject, stated that it did not want to comment on the credit card commissions deducted from the customers.