Travel companies will be banned from charging fees for credit cards and other payment methods such as Apple Pay and Paypal From January 2018, as part of the implementation of the EU Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2). There are fears this could have a severe effect on agents financially as they will no longer be able to pass on the direct costs, such as interchange fees (the handling fee charged by a customer’s card company to the agent’s merchant acquirer).
During a TTG Facebook Live discussion last week, Abta’s senior public affairs manager Luke Petherbridge said the government was “aware” of the negative effect these changes could have on travel agents.
