If they have a purchase minimum, it's because they generally have low ticket values, sub $25 average receipt value. They exchange a low percent (as low as 1.00%

If they have a purchase minimum, it's because they generally have low ticket values, sub $25 average receipt value. They exchange a low percent (as low as 1.00% on average vs ~%1.75) for a per transaction flat rate (say $.25-$.50 per transaction). The minimum is a way of keeping the processing costs in line (sub 3% for example). The debit cards have different regulations which as far as I understand, don't exist (ie, it's like the old credit card contracts where they didn't allow you to charge a separate price for cash transactions). This is only my assumption. There was no discussion on what regulations we had to follow for our merchants when it came to bank network transactions(the deals are brokered on a per bank basis, you can see which networks your card supports by looking at the back of the card for instance). Because of the segregated nature of the debit networks, they have less clout than visa or mastercard.