Minimum and maximum transaction amount rules

When is it OK for a merchant to establish a minimum or maximum for card acceptance? I was trained that this is a Visa/MasterCard no-no, but I am seeing it more often and with both large and small merchants.

- MLS Forum member tamaracast

Tamaracast:

According to "Rules for Visa Merchants: Card Acceptance and Chargeback Management Guidelines," imposing minimum or maximum purchase amounts is a violation of Visa policy. Visa advises merchants to "always honor valid Visa cards in your acceptance category, regardless of the dollar amount of the purchase." View the entire document online at www.usa.visa.com/download/business/accepting_visa/ops_risk_management/rules_for_visa_merchants.pdf

MasterCard International's "Merchant Rules Manual," states, "a merchant must not require, or post signs indicating that it requires, a minimum or maximum transaction amount to accept a valid MasterCard card." View the entire document online at www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF/12999_MERC-Entire_Manual.pdf

Editor

Help! I forgot my password

I forgot my user name and password for GS Online. Do I need to register again?

- Nathan

Nathan:

Not necessarily. Send an e-mail to webmaster@greensheet.com explaining the problem, and we will help you gain access again.

Editor

Clarification

For the cover story, "Pay phone redux: Are cell phones the new payments frontier?" (The Green Sheet, June 12, 2006, issue 06:06:01), we used an inaccurate representation of ViVOtech Inc.'s product, the ViVOpay 4000-NFC reader on the front cover image.