I don't know if you've noticed, I'm sure you have, being aware citizens of the modern era, how increasingly bloody hard it is becoming to purchase items and services with debit/credit cards. Weren't we supposed to be the cashless society? Advertisement after advertisement informing us how easy, quick and secure it would be to opt for payment with plastic rather than carrying that old fashioned and bothersome cash around with us everywhere, so easy to steal, and imagine having to remember to go to the hole in the wall before going out somewhere, I mean, come on haven't we got enough to remember! So we were invited to use plastic instead, and how easy it sounded, with names such as Access, Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and the ever so subtley named Switch (now Maestro).No extra fees, quicker and easier than cash, with the built in benefit of added security- when our signature wasn't enough, weren't we told that chip n pin would be the failsafe answer? Mind you, how could it be? Anyone who's ever forgotten their pin will testify that in 99% of establishments allow you just to sign, and online well, any Nora, Ethel or Barbera who has your details can use them to buy anything!
Anyway, to the main point of this rant. More and more companies are choosing to add a fee for use of a credit/debit card, these fees range from around £1.50 for a Visa Electron (which just about nobody has cos only about 3 companies in the world even take it), rising to about £2.99 for a Switch/Maestro and all the way up to about £8 or a %age of the total cost for use of Mastercard or Visa credit card. This is ridiculous, having led people down this plastic path, implying stupidity or backwardness towards anybody who still had a penchant for using cash to pay for things, now they're charging us to pay for things. What the fuck man? If this isn't enough, having practically outlawed paying for things by cheque in the last few years, a lot of places have now stopped accepting credit/debit cards altogether. This is absurd! I mean, it's is one thing for small businesses who operate on a cash basis and therefore need currency to pay suppliers and/or staff, to have a mininum charge for the use of a card; but for large companies, that have numerous branches to ban the use of credit/debit cards is just plain stupid- I mean, why make it more difficult for your customers to pay?
I have just spent the last five and a half hrs in Ikea in Berlin, it's hard enough to get out of Ikea at the best of times, but this time, twas extra fuckin specially hard. After spending bout 3 hrs or so trapsing around, following the bloody arrow on pain of death, continuing to fill our trolley with more and more stuff that we didn't know we needed (they're good at that like aren't they), we reached the checkout. As I've said, our trolleys were full and, of course, the queue was long, however upon reaching the front, we proceeded to have our items scanned and the bill totted up. Upon reaching for my INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED credit card to settle the account, I was informed in rather a patronising tone,
"We don't accept credit cards, the charges are too high".
"Really" said I "How bizarre, aren't you a Global Multi National?" Nevertheless, the reply remained the same so I reached for my INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNISED debit card to settle the account.
"Sorry sir" came the voice "We don't accept that card either, the charges are too high, we only accept this one particular card."
By this point I was fuming, HOW FUCKING RIDICULOUS! I mean, either you have this specific card, or you are expected to carry hundreds and hundreds of Euro round with you in your wallet, you see where we are here, RIGHT BACK TO THE FUCKIN START, CASHLESS SOCIETY, MY ASS!! Now, I'm not sure if this applies to all Ikeas in the world, but it certainly applies to the German ones which is bad enough. As it transpired, the girl at the till sent us to apply for finance, which we couldn't get cos you need, wait for it..... your passport, which one obviously carries around with one when one is shopping in Ikea of an afternoon, not bloody likely! After receiving some poor advice from the "Advisor" at the finance desk, we proceeded to have our time wasted for for another three quarters of an hr before eventually re-entering the world outside. This is time we will never get back you know. As it is we shall be returning to said Ikea tomorrow morning to collect and pay for our stuff in GOOD OLD FASHIONED CASH MONEY!!
The banks or the credit card companies may levy a charge on these businesses, and doubtless the charge is too high, but it must be taken against the fact that a credit card allows millions of customers to spend money that they don't really have, a MASSIVE BONUS FOR THE VENDOR SURELY. Pay the charges out of your end, or stand together and fight the charges, but stop punishing us because you'll lose in the long run. By not accepting or placing a prohibitive tarriff on these cards, which have been used for decades and which we have been actively encouraged to use and even rely on, companies do nothing less than antagonise, embarass, upset, belittle and rip off their customers, make it much harder for them to buy goods and, ultimately, make it much more likely that next time they'll shop elsewhere. I know I will! What's more, if the banks that levy these fees on businesses don't start to rethink their policies, they may find that their dream of a cashless society remains such. I don't think we'll lose too much sleep over that.
You see, how it always comes back to the banks ;)
Artwork by JWP
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