Shops Criticise Banks Card Processing Costs
Banks have come under attack from retailers who have accused the financial institutions of promoting plastic rather than cash in order to boost their profits from the use of debit and credit cards in shops.
The high cost of processing debit and credit card transactions in shops has been roundly criticised by The British Retail Consortium (BRC), which points out that every £20 transaction costs them approximately 17 pence in charges. However, if they were to bank £20 cash the total charge to the retailer would only be four pence. The director general of the BRC sees this as extremely unfair saying: “Banks have abused their position for many years by imposing higher charges on retailers for processing card payments than banking cash. Clearly banks see using cards rather than cash means a further boost to their profits.”
