Credit card rejected

On Oct. 10, my friend and I had lunch at Gunung Mas Restaurant which serves Chinese and Japanese food in the basement of Wisma Danamon Aetna Life. As soon as we were seated, a waiter gave us the menu. Upon seeing the prices, we both thought that the food was quite expensive for such a restaurant, but we didn't care about it at the time. The names of many of the dishes were also not familiar to us, so we asked the waiter for descriptions. Unfortunately, he could not answer promptly and had to ask other waiters for explanations as he apparently did not know anything. Finally, we just ordered some food that in our opinion was not too expensive.

I intended to pay the bill with my BII Master Card, as I was pretty sure that the restaurant would accept my credit card since they put Visa and Master Card stickers on the front door. Nevertheless, I was quite disappointed when the waiter rejected my credit card because they would not accept a credit card for a purchase below Rp 50,000.

Since our bill was Rp 48,400 -- only Rp 1,600 less than the set price -- I became really angry over the issue. My friend intervened and paid the bill in cash, as I swore I would not pay it.

The credit card center has told me that there is no rule or agreement regarding minimum purchase requirements. When I stayed in the United States, my credit card was accepted in most places without a minimum purchase price being set. It was perfectly acceptable to use my credit card when I bought gas for only US$7 or when I made a $5 purchase in a supermarket.

JULIUS HAYADI

Jakarta