There was a drop of 10% in the rates as a result of the pressure from the Conservative government of the day for Visa and MasterCard to reduce them. The change did not have a significant impact for us and did not result in additional funding being released to enable merchants to reinvest in their businesses and to hire new employees.
Visa and MasterCard told us that they were going to give us a small 10% reduction and that we should be happy with that. If England, the European countries and Australia were really able to force the hand of credit card companies, I think that we can also do something here.
Do we need to set the same rates as the ones imposed in Australia and England? Perhaps not. When we take a close look at the rates that Visa, MasterCard and financial institutions impose on small and medium-sized businesses, I don't see why 40% of the rate is used to reward consumers by giving them premiums and gifts. I don't think retailers need to cover those costs. If that percentage were subtracted from the average rate of 1.5%, the rate would automatically go down to less than 1%, which I think would be reasonable.