The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) has welcomed the publication from the Treasury Committee which highlights the increasing cost of card payments for businesses in the UK.
The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) have responded to a letter from the chair of the Treasury Committee claiming they haven’t seen evidence of rising costs of operating payment services for card issuers.
As a result, the PSR outlined fees for retailers shouldn’t have to increase accordingly.
The news comes as ACS’s Voice of Local Shops Survey revealed that 61% of independent and symbol retailers have not compared or switched acquirer in the past three years.
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Around 48% of retailers who have compared providers in the past three years decided not to switch.
The association has recommended acquirers to provide all pricing information in an easily comparable format, have contracts with compulsory end-dates and measures to ensure payment terminal contracts don’t prevent switching activity.
“Local shops play a key role in providing customers with a variety of payment methods, but the complexity of the card acquirer market and rising costs makes this increasingly expensive for convenience retailers,” ACS chief executive James Lowman said.
“The Payment Systems Regulator needs to go one step further and set out a timetable for how it is planning to review scheme fees to provide businesses with clarification.”
A consultation on proposals to improve card acquirer markets for small business in due this January. and the ACS has confirmed it will respond to it in due course.
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