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Traders attacked for charging card users more

Sajjadur Rahman
Shops, restaurants, hotels and clubs are charging customers more if they use credit cards, breaking an agreement with card suppliers, bankers claimed.
On average traders are demanding between 2-3 percent extra from cardholders, saying they need to be compensated for the charges they face from banks.
However banks denied that traders had the right to pass on such costs.
The number of users of credit cards is growing quickly and has reached 4 lakh. The first card was introduced by Standard Chartered Bank (SCB)inl997.
Under the terms of agreements between traders and the card supplier, traders pay a charge ranging from 1.5 to 3 percent in order to be able to accept card payment. This
amount should come from the price of the goods and services, not by charging buyers extra.
Abedur Rahman Sikder, head of corporate and marketing affairs of Brae Bank Limited, said as per an agreement with the respective banks on credit card use, traders are provided with the banks' equipment and other infrastructure services. Accepting credit card payments also cuts down the risk, costs and time needed by traders to handle cash.
"Merchants will give us fees around 2 to 3 percent from their selling price, but not from charging customers any extra money," Sikder said.
“They (merchants) should take the same price from the buyers using credit cards as it is taken from the customers buying in cash,” Gitanka Datta, head of card division at the SCB, said, admitting that merchants charge extra from customers.
Yeasin Ali, managing director of Dutch-Bangla Bank Limited, is also of the identical view.
A senior banker who experienced this malpractice by merchants narrated this way: "I bought an electronic item a couple of days ago. The seller wanted to charge 3 percent extra from me for use of the credit card, but I did not agree and paid him in cash.”
"Fortunately, 1 had the cash with me," he added.
However, some traders denied taking extra money form their customers, but some others said they do it for the banks, not for themselves.
"We charge customers 3 percent additional amount of money than the actual price of the goods purchased to pay it to banks," a sales consultant of laptop seller acer brand told The Daily Star at the Bashundhara City Shopping Complex.
Bangladesh Bank data says payments and transactions through credit cards by private banks rose toTk 4.31 billion on December 31, 2007 from Tk 1.92 billion six months ago. During the same period, payments and transactions through debit cards and automated teller machines (ATMs) reached Tk 24.95 billion and Tk 24.80 billion respectively from Tk 11.74 billion and 11.62 billion respectively.
The growth rate was around 124 percent for credit cards, 112 percent for debit cards and 95 percent for ATMs during the June-December period in 2007.
Of the four lakh credit card users, the SCB tops the list with about 200,000 credit cards, followed by BRAC Bank with 46,000, HSBC's about 40,000, Prime Bank's 30,000, National Bank Limited's 26,000 and Dhaka Back's 20,000. sajja@thedailystar.net