Attention: Please take a moment to consider our terms and conditions before posting.

£5 surcharge per applicant for credit card st purchases - true?

edited April 2009 in General Charlton
(large posted the above news on another thread)

I hate to moan but WTF is all that about..? Are we turning into Ryan Air? I was teetering on renewal, two kids to feed shortly, wifey made redundant, credit crunch.. give is a discount then claw some of it back?

Comments

  • I think this is outrageous. I know that a surcharge hasn't been applied before as I have always paid by Credit Card and wouldn't do so if a surcharge applied. Paying by CC at the right time means 6-8 weeks free credit. Now I've paid by Debit Card and will be charged immediately but I refuse to be legged over. Others may not be able to do the same. We are being urged to renew but then hit by this. Very disappointing.
  • edited April 2009
    This one probably isn't entirely the club's fault, it's down to the way their merchant services provider (the people who provide the card payment facilities) charges them. If you pay by debit card, they charge a flat fee (exact figures depend on the deal they've managed to negotiate, but for the sake of argument let's say it's about 25p). However if you pay by credit card, they get charged as a percentage of the purchase price, so if they are getting charged at 2% and your season ticket costs 300 quid, that's a six quid fee. Basically you're getting your 6-8 weeks "free" credit at the club's expense.

    Big retailers with higher payment volumes will get preferential rates, and so can absorb these charges more easily (or just jack up the prices to take account of them, and pocket the difference if you pay by debit card instead), but the club obviously can't afford to do that right now. Assuming my estimates above are roughly correct, if we have 10,000 season ticket holders all renewing by credit card, that's 60 grand the club would be spending on credit card fees that could be better spent elsewhere. It's probably the annual salary of 2 or 3 admin staff, for starters.
  • 60 grand the annual salary of 2 or 3 admin staff? Depends which admin staff you mean, in my view 60 grand is the maximum we should pay a single CEO.
  • in defence of the club i'm pretty sure they would have absorbed these costs in the past , when things were a bit rosier , but now they are passing on these extra costs to us the consumer..
    i've booked holidays in the past and been hit with the credit card debit card bump up stuff....
    i know football is different to most businesses but we've been treated more than fairly in the past imo and now they've got to tighten the purse strings we're gonna have to wear some of the costs.... remember they are not a charity although we don't mind them dipping their hands into their pockets to bail us out ... i stand corrected if any of our board have made any dough out of us but i doubt it....
    crap decision makers, recently, on the football side of things but far too generous imo ..... i'd like to know how many on here would be prepared to piss their kids inheritances and money up the wall like some of our board members have
  • I am a little annoyed the club didnt tell me when I renewed over the phone using the credit card. I could have used the debit card and had I known of the £5 surcharge thats what I would have done.

    I do accept part of the blame as I didnt check the total when it was quoted and only found out about it after talking to a friend after the blackpool game.

    So bit disappointed particularly as my main reason for renewing now was to help the club financially asap.
  • [cite]Posted By: Imissthepeanutman[/cite]I am a little annoyed the club didnt tell me when I renewed over the phone using the credit card.

    With you on that one. Its a change in practice, and if it wasn't mentioned, then it should have been.
  • WSSWSS
    edited April 2009
    Another example of us being spoilt by the club in the past and just realising how much we were when things turn bad.

    This is not uncommon - I got charged £9 for a holiday payment I made recently, £8 for my v-festival tickets and get a booking charge everytime I make a purchase on ticketmaster etc.
    [cite]Posted By: Imissthepeanutman[/cite]I am a little annoyed the club didnt tell me when I renewed over the phone using the credit card.
    But this I agree with.
  • We've paid by credit card and fell into the same error. Think we should have been told as we too would have used our debit card, so mild annoyance, but basically our fault for not checking the sums.
  • Doesn't it say on the form that the surcharge doesn't apply if you renew on-line?
  • [cite]Posted By: Friend Or Defoe[/cite]Doesn't it say on the form that the surcharge doesn't apply if you renew on-line?

    but you can't renew on-line if you want the £15 Valley Gold discount applied. What's that all about ?
  • Sponsored links:


  • I have just telephoned the club to check on what happened in my case.

    I paid the flat rate using my credit card with no surcharge. They made an error.

    Thats why I didnt know about it.

    When I suggested that I would be happy for it to be corrected and to use my debit card I was told not to bother. Mainly because it costs more in admin to put it right now.

    Having spoken to the ticketing supervisor I was told that there have been a few like me who have not been surcharged but any new callers are advised of the options of debit card or credit card plus surcharge.

    So I would just say if you are renewing over the phone (not online) check precisely what you are being charged.
  • [cite]Posted By: LargeAddick[/cite]
    [cite]Posted By: Friend Or Defoe[/cite]Doesn't it say on the form that the surcharge doesn't apply if you renew on-line?

    but you can't renew on-line if you want the £15 Valley Gold discount applied. What's that all about ?
    I'm as confused as you.

    As for not mentioning it on the phone, isn't that illegal?
  • How about the 30% APR on the monthly repayments? What's base rate again?
  • I think its 'illegal' if not immoral doing it on a per applicant basis, it should be per transaction

    I hate to keep moaning on about the club but this has really got me pissed off
  • The club understands the issue some people have with this. Unfortunately the club has had a regime imposed on it by the bank that means credit card payments are effectively a big additional cost, so we have had to put a disincentive into the pricing structure to discourage use and partially offset this cost. It's not the club making money, it''s about an additional cost to the club imposed by the bank.

    To mitigate this and because we want to encourage people to renew online, we have waived this charge for those bookings made on the net. We have excluded all child renewals.

    It also doesn't apply if you pay in cash, by cheque, by debit card or by Premium Credit. We have not been able to make it per transaction, because the cost to us is per applicant.

    The charge is referenced in the Birmingham programme and also on the application form. As reported above, if it has not been mentioned to people on the phone then they will not be paying it.

    We don't like it either, but without going into all the detail it is something we have been forced to do and we have tried to make it as avoidable as we can.
  • I only found out about it when 1 went to renew. So I did'nt. When I've got time I'll take my loose change jar and pay by cash.

    in the meantime If we all complain is there any chance they might take some notice ?
  • Cheers for the explanation Airman. I'll make sure i don't pay by credit card to avoid the extra.
  • [cite]Posted By: DPFC[/cite]I only found out about it when 1 went to renew. So I did'nt. When I've got time I'll take my loose change jar and pay by cash.

    in the meantime If we all complain is there any chance they might take some notice ?

    The club knows it could potentially affect the number of people who renew, but the regime imposed by the bank is potentially so onerous that it was the lesser of two evils. Therefore I don't think there is much mileage in complaining to the club and I doubt if the bank would be influenced.
  • Thanks Airman,

    So if I understand it right I won't be charged any cc fee using my interest free barclay credit card (for st purchases) for 2 kids tickets?
  • As long as the total on the individual form is less than £100 you shouldn't be charged any fee for that form.
  • Sponsored links:


  • by buying over £250 worth of derby tickets with my credit card yesterday, have i put us into further financial difficulties?
  • Thanks for the info Airman.

    I feel a bit awkward in my case because the club presumably is now going to have to pay the charge. I really wanted to get it put on the proper debit card basis and made 2 calls to try and achieve that. It may be minor but sole reason for doing it last week was to get money to the club asap.

    Speaking to the ticket supervisor she said she only became aware of this issue on Friday and still didnt have written instructions today on what was going on. Hence some confusion in the office.

    I feel a bit pissed off that my attempts to pay early and in full has not benefitted the club as much as it might and has led to an unnecessary payment to a bank who are not top of my donations list at the moment.

    On a positive note the office sounded busy. On a different tack perhaps the process (bank) can be reviewed so that there are no repeats and the club benefits to the maximum and not some bank.
  • [cite]Posted By: guinnessaddick[/cite]How about the 30% APR on the monthly repayments? What's base rate again?
    I used to work for Premium Credit - it's a licence to print money!
  • Trust me on this, my views on the clubs compliance with the Consumer Credit Act and season tickets is that EVERY year they're advertising illegally.
  • [cite]Posted By: guinnessaddick[/cite]How about the 30% APR on the monthly repayments? What's base rate again?

    That is disgustingly high.

    However, typical of companies that offer this sort of credit. I am 99.9% certain that they won't credit check anyone using the facility and as such the excuse will be that the high APR covers them against increased risks - great, users get charged because the company can't be arsed to check people out. Or is it that the club insist on no checks to make sure the maximum amount of tickets are sold?.

    Would be very interested to know how many people (on average) default on these repayment plans. That might shed some light on whether the increased APR is actually required/justified.
Sign In or Register to comment.

Roland Out Forever!