How many times have you purchased a magazine at the checkout aisle because you didn't meet the $10 limit? Or worse, spent upwards of $7 in ATM fees just to take out a twenty dollar bill?
The debit card minimum is a sleazy - and illegal - way to grab a few extra dollars from the growing number of consumers who don't carry cash, all on the baseless claim that merchants are charged a "swipe fee" on all card purchases. The swipe fee, which never exceeds 4% (that's a paltry 4 pennies on a Diet Coke), only applies to credit cards.
You are mostly right about swipe fees pertaining to credit cards and not debit cards. Merchants need to be educated about this. However, they are not paltry, nor are they limited to 4%. Interchange fees, of up to 25 cents per transaction, occur in addition to the swipe fee, which usually varies from half a percent to 3 percent.
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