The Till School
The terminal · Course · Lesson 03
03

Scheme fees are the part that keeps growing

Scheme and processing fees go to Visa and Mastercard for running the rails. They are not capped, and the regulator has said plainly that competition here is not working.

Module
1
What we count
Core scheme and processing fees charged to acquirers rose by at …
Checked
2 Sep 2026
What we are counting

Core scheme and processing fees charged to acquirers rose by at least 25% in real terms between 2017 and 2023.

Core scheme and processing fees charged to acquirers rose by at least 25% in real terms between 2017 and 2023. The regulator put the extra cost to UK businesses at at least 170 million pounds a year.

+25%
real terms increase in core scheme and processing fees to acquirers, 2017 to 2023
PSR, market review MR22/1.10, final report · checked 2 Sep 2026
£170m
at least, the extra annual cost to UK businesses the regulator attributed to those increases
PSR, market review MR22/1.10, final report · checked 2 Sep 2026
How it works

Three things to hold on to.

  1. The rise is in core fees, the mandatory ones. Optional services sit on top of that.
  2. The PSR could not calculate how much of the increase reflects the schemes' own costs, because it did not get reliable UK cost data.
  3. A quote that fixes your markup but passes scheme fees through at cost is a quote where one third of your bill can move without anyone asking you.
Task before opening time

Find the scheme fee line on your statement. If you cannot find it, your pricing is blended and the next lesson is the one you need.