[tsk1979]

I buy spares from a medium sized shop. I argued with him as he was asking 4% surcharge on CC!
He frankly told me that he will not take even 1% surcharge, but I will have to pay him MRP.
Or I can pay by cash and get a price 20% below MRP, my call.
I guess if a merchant is ready to forgo the surcharge if you pay MRP it should be okay.
If you are getting a discounted price, in that case the seller can have his her terms.
However if a seller asks for 1.5% or whatever on MRP, then its cheating, as you pay more than MRP which is against the law.

[autopsyche]

Thank you tanveer, that is the exact point of view i wanted to put as a merchant.

[Sam Kapasi]

Originally Posted by kiku007

True. But when I checked with some waiters if the SC went to them, the fact is that apart from the Star Hotels, most of them were not even aware of such a practice. So if am really pleased with the service I do tip the chap. Sorry for going off topic.

Let me tell you something from some first hand knowledge.

1) If a restaurant charges a SERVICE charge (mentioned clearly on the bill as S.C. or service charge) they are obliged (after paying the necessary Income tax on that charge) to share it amongst the service staff.
If they are not doing so, it is illegal. As illegal as collecting luxury tax on alcohol and not giving it to the government.

2) When you (as a restaurant guest) tip using your credit card, the restaurant is supposed to withdraw this money from the cash box and add it to the tip box (which is shared by the service staff, in different percentages). For the sake of accounting, this cash transaction may not occur on a daily basis, but it should occur.
Some restaurants may still choose not to have a tip box, but allow each person to keep individual tips, but this leads to a lot of trouble amongst the service staff, so it is generally avoided.

V-16 (Gogi) whose family business is food, restaurants and hotels will be able to confirm my statement.

Coming back to your statement: Every reputed establishment that is capable of charging a service charge on your food (It will ONLY be a good restaurant that will do that) WILL give it to the service staff.
If the waiter refuses to acknowledge this, it is simply because they expect more money by way of sympathetic tipping.
You are free to call the manager of the restaurant and ASK him if the service charge does indeed go to the service staff.

If the answer is no and you are able to prove by witnesses that the restaurant is charging a service charge and pocketing the amount, you are free to go to the police AND the weights and measures department and file a report against a spurious and illegal charge collected on your bill by the restaurant in question.

[ajmat]

There has been a major scandal about this in hte UK. Some restaraunts, especially chinese ones pocket the tips and service charge if on the credit card.

One newspaper has started a campaign for al restaraunts to disclose and state that they have a fair tipping campaign

Quite the same in UK, Its totally on the merchant wether they want to pass on the surcharge onto the conusmer or not. Some merchnats do and some dont, but those who do MUST inform the consumer prior to do so. Also to inform CC surcharge here is just levied on Credit Cards (Using financial institutions money) and NOT Debit Cards (using your own bank acounts money). Not sure if its the same in India.

Here 95 % of the merchants do not charge anything because of the competition. Its like if Bharti-Walmart supermarket charges and Reliance-Fresh does not the consumer who pays with CC will make Reliance Fresh his/her home store.

My home groceries superstore in UK was Sainsburys' and from last month they refused to give handbag to put my shopping into and I was forced to buy 14 handbags for my shopping for 5p each (Save the earth campaign) which I found absolutely ridiculos as I dont usually stuff carrier bags in my pocket or in my car. Since their is so much competition i just changed my regular store to Tesco, thats using my consumer power.

So I think on a conclusion it is completely legal for a merchant to add Surcharge on Credit Cards and all that the consumer can do is wait till enough competition arises in the market to then use its consumer power to move on to the merchant who is willing to bare the cost of personal effects discount he gives, the cost of CC machine hire from the finacial institutions and the 1.5% - 4% surcharge cost on their sale.

cheers,
ash

Service Charge does need to be distributed amongst the enitre staff from portes to managers to waiters and can include the owners as well, as they are part of the organisation serving the customer. Always check wether the resturant is charging service charge or not if charging then you do not need to pay a tip to the staff. Have made this general mistake myself couple of times gave service charging as wells as a good tip ! (ok maybe just when i am drunk ! lol !)

[kiku007]

Originally Posted by Sam Kapasi

Let me tell you something from some first hand knowledge.

Coming back to your statement: Every reputed establishment that is capable of charging a service charge on your food (It will ONLY be a good restaurant that will do that) WILL give it to the service staff.
If the waiter refuses to acknowledge this, it is simply because they expect more money by way of sympathetic tipping.
You are free to call the manager of the restaurant and ASK him if the service charge does indeed go to the service staff.

Thanks for the info Sam. Next time I'll check with manager for sure!

Regarding the stores not giving out carry bags, I feel that it's a good practice because it promotes Re-Use.

I usually take my Backpack when visiting these stores abroad so I don't buy the carry bags. Best part is they allow us to take the bags inside. We don't have to hand over the bag to the security gaurd. So it's all the more convenient.

Sometimes I feel that the Indian Govt should ban the free distribution of plastic bags My mom has the habbit of getting extra carry bags at textile or jewellery malls just for the heck of it!

[neon_daytona]

HDFC has charged me Rs.52 for Petrol filled at Shell worth Rs. 1850.63.

Thats 2.81% and its not a credit card but a debit card for my salary account..

Is that legal..

Can i ask them to return that amount and how?

-Shashi

[Mission_Safari]

Originally Posted by neon_daytona

HDFC has charged me Rs.52 for Petrol filled at Shell worth Rs. 1850.63.

Thats 2.81% and its not a credit card but a debit card for my salary account..

Is that legal..

Can i ask them to return that amount and how?

-Shashi

This happened a number of times when i used a creditcard or ICICI debit card at a BP bunk close to my home. Later i switched to HP where ICICI has a tie-up , so no surcharges there.

[Path_Finder]

Originally Posted by neon_daytona

HDFC has charged me Rs.52 for Petrol filled at Shell worth Rs. 1850.63.

Thats 2.81% and its not a credit card but a debit card for my salary account..

Is that legal..

Can i ask them to return that amount and how?

-Shashi

This looks very much legal to me - refer to you cardholder agreement for details - Petrol bunks is an exclusion; they can charge 2.5% + service tax which will make the amount they charged you.

You should use credit cards that have special tie-ups where you can save this charge.

[crn12]

Hello All:

I received a call from citi bank saying there is an offer called (Bucket Zero) what it does is this:

Lets say you have an outstanding balance of 50 K on your card, this offer truns the OB to EMI's for 48 months, which they say they would give me at 1.67 % monthly reducing balance, with a processing fee of INR 1000...
so the EMI would be close to 1500..for 48 months. The other thing is you can do a preclose at anytime paying again a fee of 3% on the remaining OB

Do you think this is a good option to go with?

Appreciate your thoughts & suggestions...

Cheers

[mjothi]

Originally Posted by crn12

Hello All:

I received a call from citi bank saying there is an offer called (Bucket Zero) what it does is this:

Lets say you have an outstanding balance of 50 K on your card, this offer truns the OB to EMI's for 48 months, which they say they would give me at 1.67 % monthly reducing balance, with a processing fee of INR 1000...
so the EMI would be close to 1500..for 48 months. The other thing is you can do a preclose at anytime paying again a fee of 3% on the remaining OB

Do you think this is a good option to go with?

Appreciate your thoughts & suggestions...

Cheers

None of the credit card schemes are good. period. Yes.

1.67% per month transfers to almost 20% per year. Do you really want to?

My best advice is to stay away from all these tactics. Unless you had No other options than this.

If so, then get all these on black & white, preserve those copies till you settle the amount.

[lakerdude]

Hello BHPians,

I filled petrol on 26th July from the petrol opposite to the IBM/EMC building on Bannerghatta road. I had him fill petrol worth Rs. 268/- on my Citibank credit card. I also signed the credit card slip which had the right amount.

Today when I look at my Citibank account online it reflects a charge of Rs. 278/- Now is that normal.

I read a few threads on this forum about some surcharge that is charged. If thats true then the surcharge amount should be reflected on the credit card slip right??

Please Advice.

[bblost]

Yes its normal.

To save money get a Credit Card that does refunds the surcharge.

[tsk1979]

Surcharge is not reflected.
Even if you have a zero surcharge card, the transaction statement will reflect 2.5% extra, and there will be another transaction titled "cashback" where you will be refunded this extra amount