Re: Glorantha Trading Association credit card surcharge

From: Mark Leymaster <MarcPolo_at_ziplink.net>
Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 19:08:05 -0500


I think the fee is a shame too, but it's the US banks' "merchant discount" that forces surcharges like that on small businesses. I'd bet Issaries Inc. gets even less than 95% of the credit card amount charged to the card owner. Even if Wizards' Attic accepts that erosion of its retail income, the GTA hasn't got a cushion.

What I do, when paying into my UK bank, is buy Travelers' Checks in Sterling ... which I can purchase without any fee at all from the Auto Club. Maybe there's some equivalent for you, payable to Issaries?

At least for me, the transaction cost problem is even worse when it comes to clearing checks in foreign currency from the US. Last time it cost me about $35+3.5% at a below-market exchange rate, six weeks to clear Sterling checks and deposits only accepted 12 miles away.

On the cost of the phone call, I've found ways using multiple e-mails and reversed portions of the card numbers, to transmit credit card authorizations over the internet. I'd bet Issaries Inc. will cooperate,
if you work it out in advance.

Regards,

Mark Leymaster
Renaissance Software

> Date: Sun, 31 Jan 1999 15:52:21 -0000
> From: "Jane Williams" <jane_at_williams.nildram.co.uk>
> Subject: Glorantha Trading Association
>
> Hmmm.... I notice that I can only hand over the money as a cheque in
> US dollars (tricky) or by credit card. OK, the second option sounds fair
> enough, as Barclaycard or whoever will do the currency conversion.
> But to use a credit card, I have to add another 5% to what is already
> quite a large sum of money, and can only do so by phoning a California
> phone number. Yes, very funny. They're how much away from GMT?
> And the cost of the call, while trivial compared with the donation
> requested, is still pretty high.
>
> I'm going to take a lot of convincing to hand over that sort of amount in
> any case, but this sort of attitude really doesn't help!


Powered by hypermail