Excess charge on credit card

So I payed for some medicines at a local pharmacy yesterday with my credit card and the receipt handed over to me was for RS 293. The machine was from SBI
I just happened to check my statement today and I noticed I have been charged 298.19 for this particular transaction?
I am wondering, How did this happen? Has the pharmacist charged me the 2% that the bank would charge him? If yes how did he add these charges when the receipt says 293? Isn't he supposed to tell me upfront about it?
Most places I happily pay the extra 2% to the shopkeepers but they make sure they inform me that it will be added to the final cost!
Should I call up the bank and dispute the transaction?
 
Call the bank and dispute charges based on what? It was not a fraudulent charge and it was done by swipping with your authorization. People think disputing the charges sounds easy but later dispute is lost by the customer(90% of the times when done by swipping) and you have to pay the interest for the temporary credit you receive when disputing.

Anyways, so, there is a feature in terminal software or online gateway where they can charge you surcharge upfront, happens mostly on swipe charges in petrol pump. Does petrol pump people tell you there will be a surcharge ? No. But some cards gives you surcharge back (mostly credit card).

I handle a merchant account for online business and we do surcharge people the fees that CC processor charges us, however those charge might not show up on receipt but we always let people know there will be a fee, and may be the shopkeeper didn't bother to tell or forgot to tell you abt the surcharge, Doing a dispute will be a lengthy process (signing form in bank and complaining to phone banking and getting replaced card for just 5 rupees?) rather talking to merchant might fix this or get more information.
 
This sounds fishy. Many shops I deal with ask me to pay the 2%. But the receipt always has the final amount. I don't drive so no idea how petrol surcharge works.

Why not check with the pharmacy first.
 
This sounds fishy. Many shops I deal with ask me to pay the 2%. But the receipt always has the final amount. I don't drive so no idea how petrol surcharge works.

Why not check with the pharmacy first.
charging with extra fee(total/exact amount) in terminal is one thing, and charging with Terminal or gateway setup to charge surcharge is different.
 
Since you entered the password to complete the payment on the PoS machine, going for a dispute won't help as bank will say that why did you not check the amount before entering the password.
 
Is the pharmacist next to a petrol pump? Because that is nearly 1.8%.

As for disputes, you can speak, but depends on your card issuer. I feel that he has added 2% on top. Ideally, if you stop by, ask him the next time.
 
Just checked a transaction I had done at the neighborhood pharmacy for Rs 75. The bank statement says 75.

27/12/2018 2 MEDPLUS OPTIVAL - INKAB BANGALOREIN xxxx 75.00

You prob want to check both with the bank and the pharmacy. The argument that the system/bank can add any amount to the transaction without telling you is weak. What if a merchant was quietly adding 10%? Not all of us scan the monthly statements carefully.

The petrol surcharge is well known and well advertised. I haven't heard anyone talking about surcharges on medicines. Comparing the two is disingenuous.
 
Since you entered the password to complete the payment on the PoS machine, going for a dispute won't help as bank will say that why did you not check the amount before entering the password.
The amount mentioned on the receipt at the time of entering the password was the exact cost of the medicines RS 293. It did not include the surcharge. It has been added later when I checked statement
 
Is the pharmacist next to a petrol pump? Because that is nearly 1.8%.

As for disputes, you can speak, but depends on your card issuer. I feel that he has added 2% on top. Ideally, if you stop by, ask him the next time.
No, it's just an individual shop at a shopping complex. I've paid via debit card too at this shop a couple of times last year but did not have the excess charge.
Yup, that's almost 2% without informing. Will have a word with him when I pass by
 
The amount mentioned on the receipt at the time of entering the password was the exact cost of the medicines RS 293. It did not include the surcharge. It has been added later when I checked statement
Then you can definitely dispute those charges as they were added without you knowing. This thing happens at petrol pumps too where the entered amount is different from the charged amount but everyone knows about it beforehand.
 
You can easily dispute it if the amount shown on bill is different from the amount charged on credit card statement. Just scan/take a pic of medical bill and send a mail to your credit card company.
 
Won't help as you should had confirmed before swipe. Bank won't entertain on this part.
Thats why I always confirm in fact the shops readily state that any card based transactions will get charged 2 or 5% charge on final billing.
Btw why some shops charge while others dont. It has nothing to do with big or small shops or hotels.
Is it bank or gateway specific?
 
Won't help as you should had confirmed before swipe. Bank won't entertain on this part.
Thats why I always confirm in fact the shops readily state that any card based transactions will get charged 2 or 5% charge on final billing.
Btw why some shops charge while others dont. It has nothing to do with big or small shops or hotels.
Is it bank or gateway specific?
5% you sure, coz most of the banks do not charge on transactions below 2k and if they do it varies from 1% to 1.70%, charging 5% is daylight robbery these shop keepers should be reported.
 
Yes I don't wish to name but a very well known established clinic in Pune who only demands cash and if card then 5 percent tax.
Had to run to a nearby atm for around 4k bill. Happened on 2 visits and with every patients. Just that the treatment is too good nobody cares and here literally nobody cares.
So does the tax goes in their pockets or banks no idea.
 
Yes I don't wish to name but a very well known established clinic in Pune who only demands cash and if card then 5 percent tax.
Had to run to a nearby atm for around 4k bill. Happened on 2 visits and with every patients. Just that the treatment is too good nobody cares and here literally nobody cares.
So does the tax goes in their pockets or banks no idea.
you can complain to both banks and credit card companies.

https://www.kotak.com/en/knowledge-...ou-pay-2-at-pos-credit-card-transactions.html

however I don't think anything will change. Because If Im buying PC parts, the guys says 2% extra if thru card. When I say ok, he just ads 20rs-50rs-100rs whatever to some random part. so its difficult to prove that he's indeed adding extra surchagre
 
Btw why some shops charge while others dont. It has nothing to do with big or small shops or hotels.
Is it bank or gateway specific?

When we use card at any POS, merchant/owner/shopkeeper of that POS is charged 1.x% by bank. E.g. Someone purchases stuff worth 100. Shopkeeper would get only 98.x. Some would bear that some would recover it from customer.

only demands cash and if card then 5 percent tax.
Again this is guy operating on all cash everywhere and clear case of deliberately not reporting all income in white.
 
Again this is guy operating on all cash everywhere and clear case of deliberately not reporting all income in white.

Not true. Merchants who accept cash only and hesitant on cards doesn't mean they are trying to hide income. There can be many instances , for ex their supplier might accept cash? Or this card thing is done by only like 20% of their customers.

Btw why some shops charge while others dont. It has nothing to do with big or small shops or hotels.
Is it bank or gateway specific?

It has to do with the volume, banks, acquirers , merchant service providers (ISO's/sponsor bank) loves volumes. The more they accept the better it is for merchant account provider. Now indirectly giving volume to merchant service provider means you are a big shot like reliance fresh or best price or vijay sales. Merchant account provider won't give good treatment to small shops or small business owners as they don't get special treatment anywhere anyways. And small business dont know how to negotiate, or they think they can't negotiate on the MDR which is not true.

Now a big hotshot like reliance fresh's HQ's knows how to negotiate and they give this as tender to top 5 banks, and whoever gives them best rates, they select them.

Some biggest volume provider such as Amazon get's a very different treatment like OTP integration is done on their website itself. You might have noticed Amex, ICICI, doing OTP integration on amazon itself(though they do give option to do it seperately on a private session with the bank's API). Why will a bank risk such an integration which can put the bank on a risk for millions ? Because of volume and current standing.

More on why merchant account provider love volume (a bit difficult to understand - ignore if you don't understand how merchant services work)

There is a reason a merchant account provider loves volume, one reason can be if they provide volume, they can onboard high risk merchnats (such as one selling e-cigs? or ammo , porn? there are many examples) but this info is buried deep on the internet which I was able to get to recently. Now business such as let's say adidas, reliance fresh or amazon gives a merchant account provider named XYZ volume of let's say 1cr (not amount, count as transaction counts) so XYZ can give those merchants max 1% Chargeback/dispute volume, now these are all low risk merchants and they hardly get CB. from 1cr , 1% is like 1L cb's right? now let's say adidas, reliance fresh or amazon get's only like 15k cb's, so XYZ still has 85k cb's that they can accept because VISA/AMEX/MASTERCARD gives them this limit. How do they use it ? They use it to offset these to high risk merchant and they charge high risk merchants ALOT of fees with refundable rolling reserve in case busines gets alot of CB's.

A bit on how XYZ determines high risk merchant : so a guy named Atul goes to pornhub to watch ofc porn, and stumbles onto some popup saying buy this med and you will get a big penis etc" atul is interested and buys the damn thing, and once he get's it , it doesn't work. Atul calls this company who sold this product and finds out they are in some small village in tamil nadu and doesn't know how to give even customer service and they decline on giving the refund or replacement. Atul feels this is a fraud, he calls his debit or credit card company and disputes the charge hence a chargeback.

Now XYZ received that chargeback on behalf of that high risk med merchant they on boarded and they charge that company $40 fee for dispute and gives them 3% max limit for disputes.

Now visa/mastercard/amex only gives 1% limit for cb's (unless there is a breach then it's fine) how did xyz gave those high risk merchant 3% limit where visa/mastercard/amex gives only 1% limit? they use that limit of 85k that low risk merchant such as adidas, amzon etc didnt use and they charge 3x the mdr fee to high risk merchant as they used to charg for the low risk hence balancing the cb's limit to 1% as instructed by visa/mastercard/amex.

This is bit difficult to understand and alot difficult to write here, so I apologize for this, I used to be dispute analyst 4 yrs ago at American express hence I know the inside and out of this. However there can be many other reasons why merchant service providers love volume.
 
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