Using all the ballance on prepaid cards.

I don't see why not. It may be easier to mix the prepaid card with cash, e.g., charge £40 to this prepaid card and the rest in cash.

I've certainly done it in restaurants to split the bill between couples, half on each of two cards. I can't see why supermarkets would not play ball.

replying to Michael Chare, Iggy wrote: Yes. But, you may need to help the Cashier. Store types, like Supermarkets, that have specific duty jobs commonly don't have the patience nor the wit to deal with your situation. They'll need to split the order and process a separate order for each payment method's amount. It's no problem for stores that have lower or less technology with multiple duty staff, they can spread your payments over everything in a single transaction and receipt.

Good point. I hadn't thought of that.

That or payment card + some cash. What they are unwilling to do is give back change so you can't buy one kitkat and walk away with £39.45 cash.

I have certainly split bills over multiple payment types before. However last time I have a pre-paid card (was from a "cash back" deal when I bought something), I issued an invoice to myself for the full "worth" of the card (less transaction fees) from one of the online card settlement services, and then paid it with the card. That turned it into cash in the bank.

My son regularly visits Tesco for late night food. He uses the self checkout.

Empties all his spare change into the machine, then uses his card for the rest. Probably works the other way round.

I often get rid of small change in a self checkout and pay the balance with a card.

Cheers

A local petrol station said they would take cash and cards but not two cards. When buy fuel, it is easier to get the amount nearly correct, if not exact.

I tried to do that with the old pound coins I had lying around, before they became no longer in use. The machines in my local Tesco didn't like it. Kept on rejecting most of them. An assistant simply changed them into a note. Of course some might have been forgeries - it was said there were lots around. The new pound coins seem a lot better in machines.

Would they end up paying higher charges with two cards?

I don't know. I suspect that it was an issue with the way the till worked. I now have a solution to using all the money on the card which is my main concern.

Depends on if they are credit or debit I would have thought... normally cc costs them a percentage of the transaction value while a dc will be a fixed fee per transaction.

(however the actual nature of the deal with your merchant services may skew that a bit if there is also a per transaction charge on the PDW machine etc)

====snip====

I remember a figure being quoted of 10% of all the one pound coins in circulation being forgeries in a TV programme a few years back. The problem was so severe that not even the banks questioned their validity unless they were really obvious forgeries.

The differences between genuine and forged, were so subtle as to be difficult to spot even with the aid of an identity chart of the ludicrously large variety of genuine one pound coins that were in circulation (more than a dozen different designs FFS! AFAICR).

The problem seems to have been self inflicted by the Royal Mint's propensity to issue new varieties of design. Hopefully, they'll be able to resist this needless urge to make life easy for the forgers from now on.

JOOI, I closely examined my pocket change of four one pound coins, three of which were, as expected dated 2017 with one, surprisingly, minted in

Some petrol stations impose a daily limit per card, and after you've paid for the lawnmower petrol and reinserted the card for some diesel, the message: "Take fuel - maximum value £88" (or whatever) appears. Do they auto shut off at that amount? If so, would they auto shut off at the balance on a prepaid card? If they don't auto shut off, how would one pay, at a non-attended petrol station, for the excess?

Use at a filling station, and take the exact remaining balance as fuel.