Hi there
Just a query relating to the use of your Visa Debit Card on-line.
I am personal customer with Halifax Ireland, and I have used your Visa Debit Card recently to pay for a holiday on-line with
www.1800hotels.ie .
When I got to the payment section of the web-site, I was concerned and annoyed to have a 3% levy/surcharge added to my bill. This is supposed to apply to customers using Credit Cards, but is not applied ti customers using Laser Cards!!
When I contacted the sites customer relations, I got the following reply:
As Visa Debit cards are relatively new in Ireland, our system is not yet set up to differentiate between credit and debit cards. We get charged a 3% fee for every transaction made on Visa or MasterCard, irrespective or whether or not they are credit or debit cards.
Unfortunately, we have to pass on these charges to our clients.
Enjoy your stay in xxxxx
I know there is no fault attaching to Halifax here, but do you not think it is more than a little ironic to be charged extra for using a full Debit Card, while there is no charge associated with using the restricted Laser Card?
Yours Sincerely
Halifax replied:
Dear Mr Pancake,
I refer to your email dated 11 April 2008.
I am sorry that you have experienced difficulties with your VISA debit card. I have passed on your comments to our Visa Debit Card support team who have advised me that VISA manage the relationship between Halifax and the retailers and we will bring this issue to their attention.
I would like to thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. Customer feedback helps Halifax to monitor and improve our customer service standards.
I will keep your file open and as soon as I hear from our Support team, I will be in contact with you accordingly.
Yours sincerely,
There was also an addendum, which I think I was not supposed to get:
We will need to take this up with Visa as part of an overall drive on merchants surcharging on Debit. Their statement about the 3% fee that they quoted to the customer is not actually correct but it may well be that the merchant’s acquiring bank is indeed surcharging the merchant on Debit. Essentially this is contractual politics that we cannot get involved in direct with the merchant but we do have a case to take this up with Visa as it is against a European Directive to surcharge on Debit. Visa would then approach the merchant’s acquirer and take the matter up with them as part of a formal compliance process.
So, if you are happy I will take this forward with Visa. In the meantime you can advise the customer that we will take this up with Visa as such, but for the moment don’t give them the added detail as we must stay out of the merchant / acquirer relationship here and progress this via our one and only formal route which is via Visa.
Hope this makes sense – let me know if you wish to discuss further otherwise I will add this to my list!
Regards,