Or that they're charged on the transactions by the banks, and anything below that figure isn't worth their time dealing with. Or so I've been told.

I'd like to know whether "wave and pay" on a credit card has lower merchant fees than a normal transaction. It is only for low-value transactions, so one assumes it must have? My local shop has it, but I've never actually used it. The last thing I bought there was hay fever tablets and they were expensive enough to pay the usual way

It's almost certainly the case that the 'per transaction' fee is enough to make transactions that small not worth the trouble, if possibly still marginally profitable. The point I was making is they wouldn't have bothered putting up the signs if they didn't get people trying...

Jon

I try and keep any card purchases to above £10 but they probably represent a minimum fee charged by the banks below which it gets very expensive.