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Accept Cards have a featured article in the Mail on Sunday - 27 Dec 2009

Beat the increase in card processing fees.

Keeping costs down is essential for firms, but many have seen charges for a fundamental part of their business processing card payments rise in recent months.

All card payments and transactions must be processed via an "acquirer," with most firms automatically using their bank for this, and acquirers will charge for the service.

According to Accept Cards, an independent price comparison service, many acquirers have raised their charges in recent months.

Richard Bradley, director of Accept Cards, says: "The rate at which firms are charged depends on the volume of business they do, but we have found that many firms are paying far more than they need to for card processing services. More than 90 per cent of businesses also do not realise that they can shop around."

Banks are now typically charging between 2.25 per cent and 2.5 per cent for processing credit card transactions and around 30p for debit card transactions. But Bradley says that for firms with a turnover of £1 million or more, even a two per cent charge is too high.

He claims that Accept Cards" price comparison service can typically save firms between 30 per cent and 40 per cent by finding the best deal, rather than going through their bank, with charges as low as 1.17 per cent in some cases. There is no charge for using Accept Cards" service.

Lee Marshall, 38, has run the Design House restaurant in Halifax, West Yorkshire, for the past six years. Earlier this year he was contacted by Accept Cards.

At the time Lee was paying 1.89 per cent for credit card transactions and 25p for debit cards with acquirer Streamline, part of the Royal Bank of Scotland group. But Accept Cards found a better deal with AIB Merchant Services, which reduced the charge for credit card transactions to 1.39 per cent and for debit card transactions to 18p.

Other non-bank acquirers include Elavon Merchant Services (which does the processing for Alliance & Leicester and Abbey).

It has been a tough year for Lee. He says his 100-cover restaurant has been losing up to £3,000 a week as people cut back on dining out and he has not replaced staff who have left. The move will save him £2,600 a year.

Lee says: "This has been a tough year and we have had to tighten up to survive, so to be able to cut this cost substantially is a real help."

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