UK card interchange in 2026

Interchange is the fee paid by the merchant's acquirer to the customer's card issuer on every card transaction. It is the largest component of the merchant service charge (MSC). The issuer (the customer's bank or card company) keeps interchange to cover the cost of card-account servicing, fraud risk and rewards programmes.

Capped at 0.2 percent under the retained UK Interchange Fee Regulation (originally EU 2015/751, retained post-Brexit). Applies to all consumer-debit transactions on Visa and Mastercard domestic UK rails. The cap is regulatory, not negotiable.

Capped at 0.3 percent under the same retained regulation. Applies to all consumer-credit transactions on Visa and Mastercard domestic UK rails. AMEX runs its own model (closed loop, no interchange split, merchant pays AMEX directly at higher overall rates).

Unregulated. Commercial cards (business credit, corporate cards, purchasing cards) run 1.0 percent to 2.5 percent interchange depending on card sub-category. Visa Business 1.2 percent typical, Visa Corporate 1.8 percent, Visa Purchasing 1.8 to 2.2 percent. Mastercard equivalents broadly similar. Acquirers usually do not differentiate these on blended pricing, which is why blended over-charges B2B merchants and under-charges retail.

Post-Brexit, UK-EEA transactions are treated as cross-border on the EU side. Visa and Mastercard increased UK-to-EEA consumer-card interchange to 1.15 percent (debit) and 1.50 percent (credit) in 2021 when the inter-regional caps no longer applied. The Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) ruled in 2024 that this was anti-competitive; appeals are ongoing through 2026. Watch for changes if the PSR ruling holds.

Interchange goes to the issuer (customer's bank). Scheme fees go to Visa or Mastercard themselves for running the rails. Scheme fees in 2026 run 0.05 percent to 0.20 percent on UK domestic card volume depending on transaction type, programme participation and acquirer agreement. Both are separate from the acquirer's own markup.

IC+ pricing exposes interchange line by line so the merchant pays the actual cost. Blended pricing hides interchange in a single rate; the acquirer captures the spread between the merchant's blended rate and the actual interchange paid. For consumer-debit-heavy UK retail (most high-street), blended over-charges because consumer-debit is regulated low. For commercial-heavy B2B, blended can under-charge.

No. Interchange is set by the card schemes (Visa, Mastercard, AMEX), not by the acquirer. What you can negotiate is the acquirer's markup (the "plus" in interchange-plus), the monthly fee, and the per-transaction flat fee. At £100k+ monthly card volume, most UK acquirers will reduce markups; below £25k monthly you have limited leverage.