Retailers, hospitality venues and other mostly small businesses in Northern Ireland paid approximately £500m in card transaction and other fees last year, an analysis of publicly available information reveals.
While the trend towards card use has only gathered pace during and following the Covid pandemic, some merchants are going against the move to digital and removing their machines to save money.
One café owner said the removal of the machine will save £200-300 a month, enough to keep at least one part time staff member on the books.
Ron Nicholl, the owner of Lekkers Kitchen Café in Greyabbey, said: “This is not something that we have come up with ourselves, a lot of businesses are doing the same”.
According to figures compiled by UK Finance, the trade organization representing banks and other financial institutions, consumers across the UK used their debit and credit cards to purchase £800bn worth of goods in the 12 months to the end of June.
While the organization did not immediately have a breakdown, it can be estimated the spend here was around £20bn based on the size of the population.
Fees and other costs vary but a vendor can expect to pay between one and three percent in transaction fees, between £30-80 in monthly rental and a further 0.2-0.3 per cent in service charges to banks, according to Startup.co.uk, an established independent site.
Overall, on average approximately two percent of every card transaction goes to processing companies and financial institutions.
According to UK Finance, more than 50 per cent of all payments made in the UK last year were done via a card. Only 15 per cent were in cash, down from 55 per cent a decade ago.
Mr Nicholl, who opened the Dutch-inspired Lekkers nine years ago, described ditching the card machine is a “no-brainer” and believes his business can make it work.
“There is a cash machine just two minutes away…and we think it is doable,” Mr Nicholl told the BBC.
He added that the “easiest thing to do would be to cut staff down” but that would mean less people front of house and food not delivered as quickly.
“We were looking at ways to save money without affecting our family here, our staff, and our customers.
“Every penny that we can save is helping us to stay open. This seems like a no-brainer, just take the card machine out. It is a little bit inconvenient but we have to think of our staff.”
Mr Nicholl said the machine will not be removed for ever.
According to the latest figures for June published on Monday by UK Finance, there were two billion debit and credit card transactions in June with a total spend of £71.3bn. Approximately £1.5bn of that total went to card processors, financial institutions and others.
Retail NI said it was not aware of any of retailers operating against the trend towards a near cashless society. Similarly, Hospitality Ulster said the removal of card machines was not something its representatives were aware of within the industry.