Mastercard fees for UK purchases from EU to increase fivefold

Mastercard will increase its transaction fees for British shoppers purchasing from an EU-based company on October 15.

Credit card fees will increase from 0.3 to 1.5 percent of the value of the purchase, and debit card fees will increase from 0.2 to 1.15 percent, the Financial Times reports.

Since Brexit, cross-Channel card fees no longer fall under an EU cap on transaction levies.

MP Kevin Hollinrake, who chairs the all-party parliamentary group on Fair Business Banking, called the move “alarming,” adding that it “smacks of opportunism” and has called on regulators to make sure similar companies do not use Brexit for economic gain.

“Some people might put this change down to Brexit, but it is actually just greed,” Joel Gladwin, of the Coalition for a Digital Economy, told the FT.

For British bank accounts, Mastercard still represents the largest proportion of credit card transactions. Visa, the market leader for debit card transactions, has yet to comment on similar changes — but the company has not ruled them out, according to the FT.