BRC-member retailers paid £1.48 billion in card-processing costs in 2024, the first annual fall after years of rises. Interchange caps remain in force, scheme fees rose more than 25% in real terms over 2017–2023, and card-market oversight is transferring from the PSR to the FCA during 2026.
How to read this page
“Merchant service charge” (MSC) is the all-in fee a merchant pays its acquirer to accept a card: interchange (issuer), scheme fees (Visa or Mastercard) and acquirer margin.
Annual cost figures cover calendar year 2024 (BRC Payments Survey 2025 / PSR MR22/1.10); regulatory status is current to June 2026.
Figures marked est. are reconstructed from PSR MR22/1 acquirer submissions rather than published statutory rates.
Data period: 2015 – 2026-06·Last reviewed: 3 Jun 2026·Quarterly updates·Sources: British Retail Consortium · Payment Systems Regulator · Stripe · The Nilson Report · UK Government (statutory) · Visa
1.
Six figures that frame UK card acceptance
Two lead figures show merchant cost and the scheme-fee growth the regulator has acted on. Four supporting figures show the regulated rates, the deferred cross-border cap, and a consolidating acquirer market.
Lead figuresThe cost of card acceptance and the line that is growing fastest.
BRC-member retailer card-processing costs
£1.48bn
▼ vs £1.64bn2024 vs 2023
First annual fall in card-processing costs for BRC members, as transaction volumes dipped under cost-of-living pressure. Total UK merchant acceptance cost is higher.
BRC Payments Survey 20252024
Scheme-fee growth in real terms
+25%
2017–2023£170m/yr extra cost
Core scheme and processing fees billed to acquirers rose at least 25% in real terms with no matching service improvement, the PSR’s central finding (MR22/1.10).
PSR MR22/1.10 Final ReportMar 2025
Supporting figuresStatutory caps and uncapped inter-regional rates.
Capped consumer-debit interchange
0.20%
unchangedsince 2015
Domestic UK transactions only. Set by Interchange Fee Regulation 2015/751.
IFR retained in UK lawIn force
Capped consumer-credit interchange
0.30%
unchangedsince 2015
Domestic UK transactions only. Commercial credit cards are explicitly excluded.
IFR retained in UK lawIn force
UK-EEA CNP interchange
1.15–1.50%
▲ ~5×cap deferred
Uncapped since 2021. PSR declined an interim cap (Oct 2025); the High Court confirmed its power to cap (Jan 2026); a final decision is due late 2026.
Visa / Mastercard; PSR MR22/2.8Jun 2026
Top-3 acquirer market share
~71%
consolidatingWorldpay+Global Payments merged
Worldpay, Barclaycard and Global Payments hold ~71% of UK acquiring. The CMA approved the Worldpay–Global Payments merger in October 2025.
PSR / Nilson Report2025
2.
On a typical UK card payment, the merchant keeps about 98p, but the 2p of acceptance cost is more concentrated than it used to be
Acquirers most commonly quote a single blended rate; only on “interchange-plus” or “interchange-plus-plus” pricing is the split visible. The PSR’s market review reconstructed the full stack.
Composition of a typical UK consumer-card MSC, 2018 vs 2024
Interchange has been broadly stable since the 2015 cap. The growth in MSC is concentrated in scheme fees and acquirer margin.
2018
Pre-PSR market review
£0.9929of every £1.00 kept
interchangeschemeacquirer
Interchange (issuer)0.21%
Scheme fees (Visa / MC)0.10%
Acquirer margin0.40%
Total MSC0.71%
2024
Latest reconstructed figures
£0.9915of every £1.00 kept
interchangeschemeacquirer
Interchange (issuer)0.22%est.
Scheme fees (Visa / MC)0.18%est.
Acquirer margin0.45%est.
Total MSC0.85%est.
Source: PSR market reviews · reconstructed from acquirer submissions to MR22/1 and MR22/2Checked 3 Jun 2026
What this means
Interchange has been broadly stable since the 2015 cap. The growth in MSC is concentrated in scheme fees and acquirer margin. Scheme fees, which are not regulated, have roughly doubled as a share of the stack since 2018.
These are weighted averages across consumer-card mix. Commercial card and cross-border interchange are materially higher and are excluded from these representative figures. See Section 3 for those rates.
3.
UK interchange caps cover consumer cards used inside the UK. Almost everything else is outside the cap.
The 2015 Interchange Fee Regulation set hard caps on consumer-card interchange and explicitly excluded commercial cards and inter-regional transactions. Post-Brexit, UK ↔ EEA transactions became inter-regional, and saw immediate fee increases.
Interchange rate matrix · 2024
Row = card type. Column = where the merchant and cardholder are based. Shading shows fee weight: lavender = statutorily capped; amber gradient = uncapped, with darker shades indicating higher rates.
Card type
Domestic UK
UK ↔ EEA
UK ↔ rest of world
Consumer debit
0.20%
1.15%
1.15–1.50%
Consumer credit
0.30%
1.50%
1.50–1.80%
Commercial debit
0.8–1.2%
1.5–1.8%
1.8–2.0%
Commercial credit
1.5–2.0%
1.8–2.0%
2.0–2.5%
Source: IFR (EU) 2015/751 retained in UK law (capped) · Visa · Mastercard published rate cards (uncapped)Checked 3 Jun 2026
What this means
A UK merchant who accepts a UK consumer debit card pays interchange of 20 basis points. The same merchant who accepts an EEA consumer debit card pays roughly five times more, because post-Brexit, UK ↔ EEA treatment is “inter-regional”. This is one of the most material, and least discussed, consequences of Brexit for UK e-commerce merchants selling into the EU.
The UK-EEA cap remains deferred. Visa / Mastercard inter-regional rates moved in October 2021 and have not changed since. The PSR proposed capping UK-EEA CNP consumer interchange back to 0.2% / 0.3% but declined an interim cap in October 2025; the High Court confirmed its power to cap in January 2026, with a final decision expected late 2026. Uncapped figures shown here are typical mid-band rates, not statutory.
4.
Scheme fees have grown faster than transaction volumes for seven straight years
Scheme fees are charged by Visa and Mastercard to issuers and acquirers for the use of their networks. They are not capped. The PSR’s final report (MR22/1.10, March 2025) found growth materially exceeded any reasonable cost or volume justification, and has since directed Visa and Mastercard to surface transaction-level fee data to acquirers.
UK scheme-fee revenue vs transaction volume, indexed (2018 = 100)
Both lines start at 100. The gap that opens between them is the PSR’s central finding.
Estimated extra cost£170m/yrTo UK businesses, no matching service gain
Visa + Mastercard UK share99%Of UK debit and credit card payments
Source: PSR MR22/1.10 Final Report · March 2025 · figures indexed (absolute revenue redacted)Checked 3 Jun 2026
PSR central finding
From MR22/1 Final Report, paraphrased.
Effective competition between Visa and Mastercard on scheme-fee pricing?PSR finding
None observed
Fee growth justified by cost, volume or mix changes?PSR finding
Materially exceeded
ITC transparency remedyCP25/3, Dec 2025; reporting CP26/1, spring 2026
Partially live
PSR MR22/1 · 2024
Figures are indexed rather than absolute. The PSR redacted absolute fee-revenue figures in the published report. We can show trend and ratio, but not pound totals.
5.
Small merchants pay materially more per transaction than large merchants, because almost none of the components scale linearly
A blended MSC of ~0.85% is an average. The reality is highly bimodal: large retailers with sophisticated routing pay closer to 0.5%; SMEs on “simple pricing” pay 1.5–2.0%.
Indicative MSC ranges by merchant size, 2024
Range bar = typical consumer-card MSC. Commercial-card MSCs (right column) are uniformly higher because commercial interchange is uncapped.
Small / SMEAnnual card volume < £5m · “simple” pricing
1.50%2.20%
~2.2–2.8%
Micro< £500k · flat-rate (Square-style)
1.69%1.95%
included in blended
Source: PSR market reviews · acquirer published rate cards · 2024 · ranges indicativeChecked 3 Jun 2026
What this means
The card-acceptance market is well-served at the enterprise end and competitive in the mid-market. At the SME end, “simple” flat-rate pricing trades transparency for materially higher cost. Effective MSC also varies sharply by sector: hospitality runs ~1.2–1.75%, e-commerce ~1.5–2.5%, and B2B / professional services ~2.5–3.25% because commercial cards (which bypass the IFR cap) dominate the mix. The PSR’s review of card-acquiring services (MR18/1.8) found the SME segment is where competition works least well, though ~80% of newly-signing merchants now choose API-first PayFacs (Stripe, Adyen, SumUp, Lopay) for instant onboarding and transparent pricing.
6.
Card-market oversight is moving from the PSR to the FCA, with two reviews and a cross-border cap still live
During 2026 the Payment Systems Regulator’s functions consolidate into the Financial Conduct Authority. David Geale has held both the PSR Managing Director and FCA payments-director roles since May 2025; formal legislation is expected later in 2026. Three workstreams shape merchant acceptance costs.
MR22/1.10ITC remedy partially live
Scheme and processing fees
Found scheme fees grew >25% in real terms (2017–2023) without effective competition between Visa and Mastercard. Final report March 2025; the Information, Transparency and Complexity (ITC) remedy is now being implemented.
CP25/3 (Dec 2025): directions forcing transaction-level fee data and advance notice of new fees
CP26/1 (spring 2026): regulatory financial reporting on UK profitability
Industry build cost estimated at £2.8m–£7.4m
MR22/2.8Cap deferred
UK-EEA cross-border interchange
UK-EEA card-not-present consumer interchange sits at 1.15% (debit) and 1.50% (credit), about five times the domestic cap. The PSR proposed reverting to 0.2% / 0.3%.
PSR declined an interim cap (decision 10 Oct 2025)
High Court confirmed the PSR’s legal power to cap (15 Jan 2026)
Final decision expected late 2026 / H1 2027
MR18/1.8Remedies in force
Card-acquiring services
Found small and mid-sized merchants do not effectively shop around for acquiring. Final report 2021; remedies in force from 2023–2024.
Summary boxes on acquirer statements
Online quotation tools mandatory
Maximum 18-month contract default
Market structure2025 consolidation
Acquirer consolidation: Worldpay & Global Payments
The CMA approved the merger of Worldpay and Global Payments on 20 October 2025, finding it did not substantially lessen competition given constraints from Barclaycard, Adyen, Stripe and Fiserv. The combined entity sits among a top three holding ~71% of UK acquiring, even as ~80% of newly-signing merchants choose smaller PayFacs. For the full merchant-service-charge breakdown, see the MSC explainer.
What this means
The regulatory direction for 2026 is set: more transparency on scheme fees, a cross-border cap held in reserve, and oversight passing to the FCA. Transparency remedies are landing, but the structural question, whether scheme fees themselves get capped, remains open. Merchants making acceptance-cost decisions in 2026 should expect the rules to keep moving.
More UK card processing statistics
Focused datasets in this series, each tracing its figures to named primary sources.
Every figure on this page maps to one of the primary sources below. Acquirer marketing materials and “industry survey” reports are excluded.
6 sources Source register▾
Source
Publisher
Period covered
Type
Last checked
MR22/1.10 Final Report · scheme & processing fees
Payment Systems Regulator
2017 → 2023; report Mar 2025
Regulator
3 Jun 2026
MR22/2.8 & CP25/3 · cross-border / ITC remedy
PSR · UK Courts
To Jan 2026
Regulator
3 Jun 2026
Payments Survey 2025 · merchant card costs
British Retail Consortium
2024 calendar year
Industry body
3 Jun 2026
Interchange Fee Regulation (EU) 2015/751
UK statute
In force
Primary government
3 Jun 2026
Visa / Mastercard interchange & scheme-fee rate cards
Visa · Mastercard
Effective 2024–25
Industry · published rates
3 Jun 2026
Acquirer rankings & provider rate cards
Nilson Report · providers
2025–Q2 2026
Industry data
3 Jun 2026
How we check the data▾
PSR market reviews are the authoritative reconstruction
Acquirer-confidential data was provided to the PSR under MR22/1; we use the indexed and anonymised public figures and never quote individual acquirer rates.
Rate cards are sources only for unambiguous published rates
Visa and Mastercard publish interchange rate cards and headline scheme-fee schedules; we cite those directly. We do not extrapolate or estimate.
“Typical MSC” figures are ranges, not statutory rates
Where we cite a percentage for a specific merchant size, it is a representative range from the PSR market review or from published acquirer pricing.
Interchange Fee Regulation status
The 2015 EU IFR was retained in UK law at the end of the Brexit transition period. The capped rates have not changed since.
Data integrity
Headline figures map to named primary sources (PSR, BRC, IFR statute, Visa / Mastercard rate cards) with the Nilson Report and published provider rate cards as corroborating industry data. Figures marked est. are reconstructed from PSR MR22/1 acquirer submissions; scheme-fee figures use the PSR’s redacted public series rather than absolute revenue. Regulatory status is current to June 2026. Last full review: 3 Jun 2026.
Card processing fees FAQ
Common questions about UK card processing fees and interchange
What are card processing fees?
The fees merchants pay to accept card payments. They comprise three components: interchange (paid to the card issuer), scheme fees (paid to Visa or Mastercard), and acquirer margin. Together these make up the merchant service charge (MSC).
What is a merchant service charge?
The all-in blended rate a merchant pays its acquirer to accept a card. The average consumer-card MSC was approximately 0.85% in 2024, reconstructed from PSR MR22/1 acquirer submissions. SMEs on simple pricing typically pay 1.5-2.2%. Compare acquirers at our payment processing guide.
What are interchange fees?
The portion of the MSC paid to the card issuer. UK domestic consumer-card interchange is capped at 0.20% (debit) and 0.30% (credit) under the Interchange Fee Regulation retained in UK law since 2015. Commercial cards and cross-border transactions are excluded from the cap.
What are scheme fees?
Fees charged by Visa and Mastercard to issuers and acquirers for using their networks. Unlike interchange, scheme fees are unregulated. The PSR (MR22/1, 2024) found scheme-fee revenue grew approximately 33% faster than transaction volumes between 2018 and 2024.
Why do card processing fees matter for small businesses?
SMEs on simple flat-rate pricing typically pay 1.5-2.2% MSC, compared to 0.45-0.65% for large enterprise merchants on interchange-plus pricing. The PSR's MR18/1.8 review found competition works least well at the SME end. See the fraud page for how CNP fraud and chargebacks add to acceptance costs.