Taking bars to task for (questionable) tab minimums

Americans use most holidays as an excuse to get loaded, but St. Patrick’s Day is the drunkest of them all, with profits easily covering the cost of green food coloring for novelty beers. With all the brisk business this weekend (people gotta rehearse, yo), bars will likely bust out ye ol’ tab rule—requiring a non-negotiable minimum charge on credit cards for any purchase. Before the whirlwind of swipey-swipey, Decider thought it was worth pointing something out: Those set minimums? Not allowed.

Basically, it all starts when bars enter a partnership with the credit-card companies—in exchange for the ability to let customers pay with Visa, MasterCard, or what-have-you, the bar agrees to follow certain rules set out by these card enterprises. For example, an agreement is reached that dictates how the credit companies get paid; sometimes it’s a single-digit percentage of each transaction, sometimes a flat per-charge rate, sometimes both. But when it comes to the matter of tab minimums, both Visa and MasterCard couldn’t be clearer. “Visa’s rules require merchants to always honor valid Visa cards, regardless of purchase amount,” reads an e-mail statement from a Visa representative, with bolded words and everything. A MasterCard spokesperson echoes that sentiment, adding that the rule extends to disallowing people even from posting signs about a minimum. (American Express was contacted as well, but they failed to reply to press inquiries.) Customers who stumble into a bar charging a minimum are instructed to visit the credit-card company’s website or call the customer-service number located on the card’s back; the company then works with the bar’s acquiring bank, the direct link between the pub and the dough, to bring them back into compliance.

Yet the practice persists in Chicago. “The reason a lot of bars do it is they’re a high-volume bar—if you order one beer and close out your tab, it takes a lot of time,” says Alex Renaldi, assistant manager at Lakeview’s Mad River. His bar used to have minimums, but now only enforces them when insanely busy, like on holidays. Sure, they don’t want to waste too much time running cards, but the minimum also discourages people who may have found a stray card in the crowd from charging a quick shot, then running. Servers are instructed to tell bargoers about the minimums before accepting their cards, so there’s no surprise. All well and good, but Renaldi is seemingly unsure of the fact that, well, minimums are a no-no—and he’s not alone. “[Bars] might not wanna talk, just in case it’s illegal,” he says.

Apparently, some don’t even live in the gray area. Jeff Nash, co-owner of Spoon in Old Town, says he’s not aware of whose decision it is to have a minimum: the bar or the credit-card company. (Hint: Not the bar.) His place has been charging $20 minimums since it opened seven years ago—mostly for financial reasons, to counteract the fees that accrue each time a card is run—and he says no one has ever complained. Hell, patrons should know, what with all the posted signs around the bar.

Such blatant disregard for the rules could get reported, but doesn’t; tab minimums persist. It could be that customers realize bars are just doing what they can to stay in business—that they’re willing to look the other way if it means other things slide. “Some bars wanna let you in barefoot, even though it’s against the law; some let dogs in,” says Old Town Ale House’s venerable bartender Lulu. (“There’s only one Lulu here… they’ll know who I am.”) Her bar has been cash-only for more than 50 years, but she definitely understands the plight of drinkers everywhere—cash, credit, or otherwise. Namely, that they don’t really care. “If you want it that bad, you’ll pay for it,” she says. “And have five of them.”