smallbusiness.co.uk: Helping your business think big

Small businesses could benefit from an increased use of cash, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) claims.

This is because retailers are charged more for credit card transactions, according to the consortium's spokesperson Richard Dodd.

Dodd claims that an average cash transaction cost businesses two pence whereas card transactions charges on average come to 34 pence in charges.

This is harmful to retailers because they cannot alter the prices they charge to customers dependent on consumers' payment types, Dodd states.

'Banks and the other card issuers are charging retailers a lot more than it actually costs them in reality to process transactions,' he adds.

According to the BRC, the use of cash for payments has increased in recent times.

Over the last 12 months, 60 per cent of all transactions were made using cash, compared with 54 per cent in the previous months.

In terms of value, cash is used for 34 per cent of retail spending, compared with 32 per cent a year ago.

There are currently no comments on this article