Ron Hui Shu-yuen, vice-chairman of Publicity and Community Relations Committee of the Consumer Council, shows an energy saving wire mesh, and urges the public not to use it. Louise Ho

The Consumer Council yesterday said that shops are not allowed to impose surcharge or minimum spending limit on customers who use credit cards to settle payments.

The consumer watchdog was informed by credit card associations (Visa, MasterCard and American Express) that merchants must not add any surcharges to the transactions or set any minimum spending limit, even for transactions of small amounts.

Ron Hui Shu-yuen, vice-chairman of Publicity and Community Relations Committee of the Consumer Council said: "We urge consumers not to pay any surcharge imposed by merchants and report such incidents to card issuers".

He remarked that credit card holders could actually get surcharge refund from credit card issuing banks, though many card holders did not know how they could get refund.

In the Consumer Council's survey of 18 card issuing banks, all responded that they would handle requests for surcharge refund, if consumers could provide the amount of surcharge on the receipt.

The Council also advised card associations to inform card holders of these malpractices, Hui said, adding that he knew some card associations have already informed their customers.

The credit card associations responded that they have asked merchants to abide by the regulations.

A spokesman for Visa said they had sent a reminder to all Visa client merchants on the proper procedures for handling card holder enquiries or complaints regarding merchant surcharge.

Visa reserves the right to terminate a merchant's ability to accept Visa cards if it fails to stop such malpractices, the spokesman said.

A spokeswoman for MasterCard said card holders are strongly urged to report any errant merchant to MasterCard or to their respective card issuing bank.

To help track down the offending merchant, she added, consumers should include the name and location of the merchant and a copy of the credit card sales slip when filing a report.

A spokeswoman for American Express said if a merchant imposed surcharge for a number of times, they would terminate the contract with the merchant.

Many consumers are not aware that they do not have to pay any surcharge or minimum spending limit, the spokeswoman added.

A 36-year-old card holder by the name of Eric Chung said he did not know that merchants were not supposed to impose surcharge.

He had not paid surcharge to shops before, but he said he would get in touch with card-issuing banks, if he faces such incidents in future.

Fifty-three-year-old housewife Yu Hung-mui did not know there was no minimum spending limit on card transactions.

She had come across situations when she was asked to pay 2 percent surcharge to travel agents and she chose to pay in cash.

Meanwhile, the Consumer Council also warned consumers against using a dangerous product used on gas stoves.

The product, called "energy saving wire mesh", when placed over the burner, can allegedly cut down fuel consumption by up to 30 percent.

Test results conducted by the Council on the product found that the wire mesh could increase the concentration of carbon monoxide by over 40 times in a few minutes.

The Council urged users not to use the wire mesh for their own safety.

(HK Edition 08/16/2008 page2)