Scheme fees are the fastest-rising, least-scrutinised part of card-acceptance costs. The Payment Systems Regulator found that the core scheme and processing fees Visa and Mastercard charge UK acquirers rose by at least 25% in real terms between 2017 and 2023, costing UK businesses an estimated £170 million a year more. The real story is what is missing: unlike interchange, scheme fees are not capped, and the PSR found no clear link between the rises and better service.
How to read this page
Scheme fees are charged by the card networks (Visa, Mastercard) to your card processor for using their network. They are separate from interchange.
Your acquirer is your card processor. Interchange is the capped fee that goes to the customer's card issuer, a different cost covered on its own page.
Real terms means after inflation. A 25% real-terms rise is on top of inflation, not including it.
Data period: 2017 – 2023-12·Last reviewed: 2 Jun 2026·Quarterly updates·Sources: Payment Systems Regulator
1.
UK card scheme fees at a glance
How fast scheme fees have risen, what that has cost UK businesses, and the regulatory gap that lets it happen.
Real-terms rise in scheme fees
+25%
▲ 2017 to 2023real terms
The PSR found core scheme and processing fees charged to UK acquirers rose by at least 25% in real terms between 2017 and 2023, on top of inflation.
PSR Market Review MR22/1.102025
Extra annual cost to business
£170m
▲ per yearestimate
The PSR estimates the rises added at least £170 million a year to what UK businesses pay to accept cards.
PSR Market Review MR22/1.102025
Regulatory status
Uncapped
unlike interchangecurrent
Scheme fees are not capped by regulation. Interchange has statutory caps; scheme fees do not, which is central to the PSR's concern.
PSR Market Review MR22/1.102025
Market structure
Two networks
Visa & MastercardUK
Visa and Mastercard process the overwhelming majority of UK card payments, so acquirers and merchants have little ability to shop around on scheme fees.
PSR Market Review MR22/1.102025
2.
What the PSR found on scheme fees
The Payment Systems Regulator's market review is the most authoritative UK analysis of scheme fees. Its headline findings are stark.
PSR Market Review MR22/1.10 key findings
Finding
Value
Period
Rise in core scheme and processing fees
at least +25%
2017–2023 (real terms)
Extra annual cost to UK businesses
at least £170m
per year
Link to improved service
No clear evidence found
review finding
Regulatory cap
None
current
Source: PSR Market Review MR22/1.10 (final report, March 2025). The £170 million is a PSR estimate of the annual financial uplift; the 25% is a real-terms figure.Checked 2 Jun 2026
What this means
The PSR concluded that Visa and Mastercard raised these fees in a market with little competitive pressure and without demonstrating matching improvements in service. That is the regulatory case for intervention, and it is why scheme fees, not interchange, are now the live cost-of-acceptance debate.
3.
Where scheme fees sit in your card bill
Scheme fees are one of three parts of the merchant service charge. Understanding the stack is the key to seeing what you can and cannot control.
The three parts of a card-acceptance bill
Component
What it is
Paid to
Interchange
Capped wholesale fee (0.2% debit, 0.3% credit)
The customer's card issuer
Scheme fees
Network assessment and processing fees (uncapped)
The card network (Visa, Mastercard)
Acquirer margin
Your processor's mark-up
Your processor
Merchant service charge
The total rate you actually pay
The three rows above, combined
Interchange caps: UK Interchange Fee Regulation. Scheme fees: PSR MR22/1.10. See the interchange page for the capped component and the card processing hub for the full picture.Checked 2 Jun 2026
Scheme fees are not interchange. Interchange is capped by law and goes to the card issuer. Scheme fees are uncapped and go to the network. Treating the whole card bill as "interchange" hides the part that is actually rising, which is the scheme fee. See UK interchange fee statistics for the capped component.
4.
What rising scheme fees mean for your business
Scheme fees are the part of your card costs you can least control, which makes pricing transparency and the regulatory outcome matter most.
The practical points
You cannot negotiate scheme fees. They are set by the networks and passed through. Unlike your acquirer margin, they are not a point of competition between processors.
Interchange-plus pricing makes them visible. On interchange-plus, scheme fees are passed through at cost and itemised, so you can see them. On blended pricing they are hidden inside one rate.
Rises hit everyone using cards. Because two networks dominate, a scheme-fee rise flows through to nearly all card-accepting businesses at once.
Compare on what you can control. Focus competition on the acquirer margin and pricing model. Our payment processing guide compares providers, and the card processing statistics hub has the full cost picture.
Real-terms rise
+25%
2017 to 2023
You can negotiate
Acquirer margin
Not scheme fees
5.
Reading the scheme-fee figures carefully
Two points keep the headline numbers honest: the rise is in real terms, and the cost figure is an estimate.
Real terms, and a regulator's estimate
The 25% rise is in real terms, meaning after stripping out inflation, so the cash increase over the period was larger still. The £170 million a year is the PSR's estimate of the additional cost to UK businesses, characterised in the review as "at least" that figure, not a precise audited total. Both come from the PSR's market review, which is the authoritative source, but they should be read as a regulator's findings and estimates rather than line-item accounts.
Scheme fees are commercially opaque by design. The networks do not publish a simple, single scheme-fee rate, and much detail is redacted in published annexes as commercially sensitive. That opacity is part of the PSR's concern, and it means precise per-transaction scheme-fee figures are not publicly available the way interchange caps are.
6.
Sources and methodology
The scheme-fee findings come from the Payment Systems Regulator's market review of card scheme and processing fees, the authoritative UK source.
1 source Source register▾
Source
Publisher
Period covered
Type
Last checked
Market Review MR22/1.10 (Scheme and Processing Fees)
Payment Systems Regulator
2017–2023 (final report 2025)
Regulator
2 Jun 2026
How we check the data▾
Findings from the PSR
The 25% real-terms rise and the £170 million annual cost come directly from the PSR's MR22/1.10 final report, the authoritative review of UK scheme fees.
Real terms and estimates labelled
We state that the 25% is a real-terms figure and the £170 million is a PSR estimate ("at least"), not an audited line item.
Opacity acknowledged
Because the networks do not publish simple scheme-fee rates, we do not present a per-transaction scheme fee, only the PSR's aggregate findings.
Data integrity
All figures map to PSR Market Review MR22/1.10. The 25% is labelled real-terms, the £170 million as a PSR estimate, scheme fees are kept distinct from capped interchange, and we do not invent a per-transaction rate. Last full review: 2 Jun 2026.
Scheme fees FAQ
Common questions about UK card scheme fees
How much have card scheme fees risen in the UK?
The Payment Systems Regulator found core scheme and processing fees charged to UK acquirers rose by at least 25% in real terms between 2017 and 2023, costing UK businesses an estimated £170 million a year more (PSR MR22/1.10).
What is the difference between scheme fees and interchange?
Interchange is a capped wholesale fee (0.2% on debit, 0.3% on credit) that goes to the customer's card issuer. Scheme fees are uncapped fees charged by the networks (Visa, Mastercard) to your card processor for using their network. They are separate parts of the merchant service charge.
Are card scheme fees regulated?
No. Unlike interchange, scheme fees have no statutory cap. The PSR found they rose with little competitive pressure and no clear link to improved service, which is the basis of its case for intervention.
Can a business negotiate scheme fees?
No. Scheme fees are set by Visa and Mastercard and passed through by your processor, so they are not a point of competition. You can negotiate the acquirer margin and choose a pricing model; interchange-plus pricing at least makes scheme fees visible.
Why are scheme fees hard to see?
The networks do not publish a single, simple scheme-fee rate, and much detail is redacted as commercially sensitive. On blended pricing scheme fees are hidden inside one rate; interchange-plus pricing itemises them so you can see the cost.