Credit Cards: Fees and Charges

(asked on 6th July 2018) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to tackle excessive card payment surcharges.


Answered by
John Glen Portrait
John Glen
Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This question was answered on 16th July 2018

In January 2018, European Union legislation (PSDII) introduced a mandatory ban on surcharging for the vast majority of consumer cards - Visa and MasterCard - with the Government extending the ban to all retail payment instruments. The intention is to make the rules around surcharging less confusing for customers and reduce the chances of the customer being taken advantage of by any unscrupulous firms.

This builds on action already taken by the Government through the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharges) Regulations 2012, which set out to improve transparency to facilitate competition and address excessive payment surcharges.

Government has not made a formal assessment of the impact of the Consumer Rights (Payment Surcharge) Regulations. However, in Spring, the Government launched a call for evidence on cash and digital payments in the new economy. It sought information on how the shift from cash to digital payments impacts on different sectors, different regions and different demographics. As part of this call for evidence, views on the surcharging ban were provided. The Government will formally respond to the call for evidence in due course.

Reticulating Splines