Pingo Doce is again allowing its customers to pay for their purchases under €20 by bank card.
The decision was made official on January 2, shortly after the European Union lowered the percentage banks can charge per ATM card transaction – now at 0.2% for debit cards.
Since September 2012, shopping values up to €20 had to be paid in cash at Pingo Doce supermarkets. At the time, Grupo Jerónimo Martins slammed the card processing fees charged in Portugal were “two times higher than the European average”.
If the group’s estimates were correct, Pingo Doce may have saved around €5 million per year. However, a source from the food distributor group which owns the supermarket chain told the press that the “ban” was always meant to be “temporary”.
