You gotta fight for your right (to retail)

I did something Saturday I’ve never done before.

I walked out of a gas station with my Vitaminwater and a bag of peanuts still sitting on the counter.

It’s not that I didn’t want them.  I was hungry and thirsty after my friend Lauren’s wedding.

I walked out of the Gardendale gas station because the clerk informed me that I couldn’t use my debit card to buy the snack.

“There’s a three dollar minimum,” she said.  “Do you want to add another bag of peanuts?”

“Nope,” I told her.  “That’s all I want.  And you can’t do that.”

The clerk’s eyes opened wide. 

I don’t think anyone had ever told her that.

You see, according to the agreement retailers sign with credit card companies to accept cards in their businesses, they’re prohibited from instituting minimum charges on customers.

You wouldn’t know that these days.

Everywhere you go, there are little handwritten signs: three dollar minimums… five dollar minimums… even ten dollar minimums in some places.

Times are tough, and for some businesses, small credit or debit transactions can cost them money.

That’s too bad.

They should raise their prices, or charge one price for cash and another price for credit.

I rarely, if ever, carry cash for two reasons:

I was once robbed at gunpoint in Birmingham and when that happens you’ll never get your cash back.

I also like to track all my purchases with the financial website Mint.com and things I buy with a debit card are easier to keep track of than cash purchases.

We’re moving to a paperless society.  Isn’t it time retailers get with the times?

So what can you do? 

Do what I did. 

Tell clerks they’re in violation of their credit card agreements and then complain to the bank that issued your card.

Maybe we can take a little power back for the consumer.

After all, that’s who drives this nation’s economy.

To read credit card agreements, click here for VISA.  Click here for Mastercard.

More information on minimum credit and debit charges can be found here.