On a related issue – it amazes me how many places in the UK don’t accept cards AT ALL. Sure – it costs the merchant a small percentage, but how much business do they lose from people simply not shopping there?

I completely agree – My wife runs a business from home, and it was a no brainer to get an iZettle to accept card payments as loads of places just take cash, and by accepting card i KNOW people are more likely to pay more/get more, and also rely on credit etc for treatments (bad for them if they are in debt, but good for the business)..

I wanted to buy an ice cream and coffee from TWO (yeah, TWO goddammit) little ice cream places on the south coast sea front..nil took card, so they missed out on my business. I can’t help wondering if LOADS of people just walk on by due to the “sorry, cash only” sign..

iZettle (and others..) are SO easy to set up and use, it’s jsut bloddy mindedness if you don;t have one.

DrP

My wife and I have BA Amex Cards and do 90% of our monthly spending on it as most places do take it these days. Haven’t paid more than £25 each for a business class flight in europe since and have just booked two first class tickets to New York for our wedding anniversary in January for £500 each instead of £4.5k!

I’ve got the ‘proper’ amex platinum card (not the cashback one).

£450 a year, but unlimited travel insurance, unlimited lounge access for me, my wife, and 2 guests each (including their centurion lounges) and concierge makes it worthwhile for my man-maths.

It’s very widely accepted for hotels & food, particularly at the higher end of the market. for cheaper, independent places, the fee (which I believe is negotiable) puts some merchants off.

I probably put 90% of my spending through it – only things that won’t take it go on the debit card

On a related issue – it amazes me how many places in the UK don’t accept cards AT ALL. Sure – it costs the merchant a small percentage, but how much business do they lose from people simply not shopping there?

This, I don’t carry cash as a rule, I haven’t for years now.

I get pretty annoyed at the “50p charge for things under £5” thing, I don’t think there’s been a flat fee for card services for years.

“Cash only” just screams “tax avoidance” to me, ffs even my window cleaner takes PayPal.

Oh and coins for trolleys. I keep meaning to buy one of those token things, but I haven’t seen them in a while.

It’s interesting that people think Amex is more expensive than visa or MasterCard as a merchant.

In some instances that may be true – but what merchants don’t always understand, because it’s hidden deep in the manuals for visa and MasterCard… is that “premium” cards attract a premium interchange. And guess what? More and more of their cards are run on premium rails.

So – the headline rate may be one amount – but once the murky operational costs are added on, there’s not as big a difference as people believe.

Amex is also making big strides in coverage – but still falls short in some markets admittedly.

What gets me about American Express, is that you think it would be good for USD transactions. But no a massive fee of 3%! Halifax clarity card is much better for USD transactions and other overseas transactions.

It’s very widely accepted for hotels & food, particularly at the higher end of the market. for cheaper, independent places, the fee (which I believe is negotiable) puts some merchants off.

is that like a wee subtle brag right there 😉

The flat interchange fee for debit went recently – last couple of years from memory. The issuers hated it – max of 50p and you could buy a Ferrari.

Issuers rates are capped at 30bps credit and 20bps for debit across the EU and EEA

Bps?

is that like a wee subtle brag right there

ha, not these days. I go to the occasional posh place, and lots of cheap places, I use instinct as to which card to pull out and I’m normally right 🙂

As per most others I have one for the cashback, which is pretty good.

Its accepted in most large places, but you couldnt have one as your only credit card, you need a mastercard or visa as a fallback.

Bps?

Basis Points – 30bps=0.30%

mccraque is obviously in the business ;o)

My mate worked for two years on the rules for calculating fees on card transactions. There are a lot of rules!

We are on 0.65% credit card and 0.25% debit card with a 1p transaction fee .
That’s as low as I could find and haggle. If the numbers mccraque quotes are correct How do World pay and everyone else manage to charge more?
Is that the costs the Worldpay are paying someone?
How many people are involved between a customer putting their card in the machine and me receiving the money?

by the way – if you find somewhere you want to use the card but can’t, put the details here and the Amex merchant team follows them up

http://www.takeamex.com/

zippykona – the 0.30% cap is the cap on the level of fee that is paid to the bank that has issued the card (ie Barclaycard, Nat West, TSB, HSBC etc). WP are then making approx 0.35%, less some fees that they might be paying to Visa/MC (the schemes), plus any monthly fees they are charging you for your card machine etc.

There are four parties involved – you (the merchant), the cardholder, the issuing bank and the acquirer (WP). Unless it’s an Amex transaction, then there are three as Amex are the issuer and acquirer.

So Amex should be cheaper really.
Anyway our costs are lower than a year ago.
Another 3 cheers for the eu.
As for not taking Amex our machine simply won’t accept them.

On a related issue – it amazes me how many places in the UK don’t accept cards AT ALL. Sure – it costs the merchant a small percentage, but how much business do they lose from people simply not shopping there?

I was doing some work in London last, in a civil service building a stone’s throw from parliament. I had no food or water with me – why would I when I’m surrounded by the biggest city in the UK? The little Costa franchise in the hall would only take cash. I starved all day because I only had 37p in my pocket. (I needed to be escorted in and out of the building, v high security, so once I was in I wasn’t moving.) 🙄

I starved all day because I only had 37p in my pocket. (I needed to be escorted in and out of the building, v high security, so once I was in I wasn’t moving.)

If only some one would invent a way of easily getting cash in big city – some sort of vending device would possibly do the job. But we can only dream of such a time!