Debit/Credit Card Charge Ban To Come In To Effect This Week
January 2018

Last year the government announced plans for upcoming legislation which would prevent businesses from charging any fees for credit and debit card payments. These new rules will come in to effect on Saturday 13th January 2018 and will see businesses no longer being able to charge surcharges for certain card transactions, but still facing the costs for processing card payments.

The new rules will mean surcharges are banned across most payment providers, including American Express and linked ways of paying such as PayPal or Apple Pay. However, they do not apply to corporate cards.

The rules will apply to any UK company which is selling to UK consumers. It's also worth noting the new rules won't just apply to the UK. As this law is following an EU directive, companies across the EU will also be banned from charging these extra fees.

Although this may appear a simple initiative on the outside, to avoid any penalties we urge our clients to ensure any resulting changes to internal processes are made ahead of the 13th January deadline, including things such as website content, letter suites and changes to IT or call processes.

Within Alex M Adamson LLP we have amended all processes so they will fall in line with the new rules, ensuring any payments which are undertaken on our clients behalf from their debtors adhere to the new legislation. Debtors will not be billed for any additional charges when paying by debit or credit card & we will be absorbing these extra costs in-house to ensure our client costs do not increase.