According to the latest British Retail Consortium’s (BRC) annual payments survey, card payments have become dominant in the UK, accounting for 76% of retail sales volume.
With cash continuing to decline both as a share of retail transactions (down 0.5%) and value of sales (down 1.2%), retailers are concerned about the rising cost of accepting cards, says BRC.
The survey revealed that retailers spent an extra £170 million to process payments in 2017 and £1 billion is expected as fees in the coming years.
Andrew Cregan, head, payments and consumer credit, BRC, says: “EU payment regulation introduced in 2015 delivered savings for the retail industry and consumers, but these benefits have now been eroded by increases in other card fees.
“In fact many smaller retailers have questioned whether savings were ever passed on by card companies. The BRC are now looking to the Government and Regulator to tackle the alarming increases to card scheme fees imposed on retailers, and for action to simplify the complex fees and charges levied by the card payments industry.”
