If you run a shop, café or pub in Essex or Cambridgeshire, there is a slice of every card payment you take that you have probably never seen explained. It is not the rate your provider quotes you. It sits underneath, charged by Visa and Mastercard themselves, and it is known as card scheme fees.
On 30 November, new rules from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) start to bite on exactly those charges. They will not cut your bill overnight, and I will not pretend otherwise. But they are a genuine step towards the thing I have argued for since day one: no independent business should be paying fees it cannot see.
What are card scheme fees, in plain English?
When a customer taps a card at your counter, three main costs are involved. There is interchange, which goes to the customer's bank. There is your provider's own margin. And there are card scheme fees, which Visa and Mastercard charge to the acquirers who process your payments. Those acquirers almost always pass them on to you.
The trouble is that scheme fees are often bundled into one blended rate, so you never see them move. When they go up, your costs creep up quietly, and most owners only notice when the monthly statement feels heavier than it should.
Why the regulator stepped in
In March 2025 the PSR published its review of these fees. It found that Visa and Mastercard's core scheme and processing fees rose by more than 25% in real terms between 2017 and 2023, costing UK businesses at least £170 million extra a year. The regulator concluded the market was not working well, because acquirers and merchants had little choice and little information.
Fees rose by more than a quarter in real terms in six years, and most shopkeepers were never told why.
In July 2026 the PSR followed up with two formal directions to Visa and Mastercard. One is about transparency: explaining what each fee is for, how it is triggered and how it is calculated. The other is about pricing governance: making the schemes document and justify their UK pricing decisions properly.
The dates that matter
- 30 November 2026: Visa and Mastercard must have pricing governance controls in place, with a written record behind significant fee decisions.
- 30 July 2027: the fuller transparency rules apply, so each UK fee must be clearly explained to acquirers.
- Notice periods: new or changed fees will need six months' advance notice, which means fewer surprises arriving on your statement.
It is worth being straight about the limits. These rules do not cap scheme fees, and they apply to the card schemes, not directly to your provider. The benefit for you is clearer information flowing down the chain, which only helps if your own pricing lets you see it.
Why this matters more than ever on the high street
Independent traders are being squeezed from every direction. The British Retail Consortium said after the Budget on 28 October that around one in seven shops is now empty, and that retail faces £41 billion in business taxes this year. When rates, wages and energy are all rising, the fees you pay on every sale are one of the few costs you can actually do something about.
Every pound lost to an opaque fee is a pound that leaves Saffron Walden, Chelmsford or Cambridge and lands on a corporate balance sheet somewhere else. Keeping it in your till means keeping it in your town.
What to do this week
- Dig out your last three statements. Look for a line showing scheme fees separately. If everything is lumped into one rate, you cannot see what Visa and Mastercard are charging you.
- Ask your provider one simple question. "Will you pass scheme fee changes on to me, and will you show them on my statement?" A good provider will give you a clear answer.
- Check how you are priced. Interchange plus plus pricing shows each layer of cost on its own, so changes are easy to spot. Blended pricing hides them.
- Check your contract terms. If you are tied into a long lock-in with rate review clauses, find out when you can leave and what it costs.
If you want help reading a statement, that is exactly what we do. You can see how we approach card payments for local businesses, and if you are thinking about upgrading your till at the same time, have a look at our EPOS solutions.
A local alternative to faceless providers
At EABS we sit down with you, in your shop, and go through every line. Our customers save 50% on average, they get guaranteed next-day settlement so their money is in the bank when they need it, and they are on flexible monthly rolling contracts rather than locked in for years. When the rules on card scheme fees change, we explain what it means for you in plain English, not in a call centre script.
If you would like a second pair of eyes on your card fees before Christmas trading peaks, book a free face-to-face rate audit. I will come to you, it takes about half an hour, and you will know exactly where your money is going. Carl Pearce, EABS.
