Visa (NYSE: V) Comments on $10.00 Minimum for Credit Card Transactions

Visa (NYSE: V) has clarified its policies about allowing merchants to set a $10.00 minimum on credit card transactions in a blog post on its website after The Consumerist published an article suggesting that many of the largest credit card companies were doing their customers a disservice by setting the minimums.

Visa Corporate Relations executive Tedd Carr wrote that, “We here at Visa wanted to take the opportunity to clarify a few recent posts about U.S. merchants setting a minimum purchase requirement for using a credit card. For our part, we want to proactively offer Visa’s perspective on this issue to minimize any confusion, particularly since Visa did not allow this practice in the past.”

Carr added that Visa had changed its policies to comply with provisions of the Dodd-Frank Act which gave merchants the ability to set a $10.00 minimum on credit card transactions. He wrote, “The answer is actually rather simple: We’ve changed our rules to conform to U.S. federal law.”

He stressed that the transactions only applied to those in the United States and that the legislation does not cover debit card transactions. Carr said that Visa’s no-minimum rule remains in effect for those that don’t accept debit card transactions.

Not all merchants will impose a minimum for using a credit card, said Carr, because setting no minimum makes shopping more convenient for consumers. He added that there may be some merchants that do not understand the law and may try to impose a higher minimum. He said that if that happens, consumers should let their card issue know by calling the number on the back of their card.

Visa Inc. (Visa) operates the retail electronic payments network and manages a global payments brand. It facilitates global commerce through the transfer of value and information among financial institutions, merchants, consumers, businesses and government entities. Visa provides financial institutions with product platforms encompassing consumer credit, debit, prepaid and commercial payments. VisaNet, the centralized, global processing platform, enables to provide financial institutions and merchants with a range of product platforms, transaction processing and related services. In July 2010, the Company acquired CyberSource Corporation.

Shares of Visa (NYSE: V) traded up 2.75% during mid-day trading on Monday, hitting $67.28 during mid-day trading.