Why do some retailers add a surcharge to card payments? Doesn’t this undermine Visa’s argument that cards are cheaper than cash for retailers?
Visa regulations include a no surcharging rule, however local laws in each European country may specifically allow retailers to surcharge. However, in countries where surcharging is permitted, very few retailers and businesses impose it as they recognise it discourages custom. Furthermore, most retailers benefit from card payments in a number of ways including: cost savings – no need to count, store and collect cash; and increased security – for example chip and PIN which has more than halved fraud levels since it was introduced; and a reduction in losses of cash from till. With the implementation of the Payment Services Directive (PSD) – a regulatory initiative from the European Commission to regulate payment services and payment service providers, as part of the goal of achieving a Single Euro Payment Area (SEPA) – countries are obliged to legislate on whether surcharging is permissible or not. National Governments are working on transporting the directive into law, and countries are
