Agents and tour operators look set to face rising costs in debit card payments taken over the phone, following changes to the way Visa and MasterCard calculate transaction fees.

Both of the firms released details of the new charges late last year, with the new rates set to come into effect in March (Visa) and April (MasterCard) following a European Union ruling.

Interchange rates are paid by merchant acquirers such as Barclay-card and First Data, with these costs, and others, passed on to retailers.

Currently Visa, which has the vast majority of the debit card market in the UK, charges 8p per transaction for debit cards, but it is planning to change this to a percentage fee.

From March 1 this will lead to 0.2% +1p being charged on every purchase, with a maximum cap of 50p for secure transactions, and 0.2%+11p with a maximum cap of £1 for non-secure transactions.

At the moment transactions taken over the telephone qualify for a lower charge if businesses take certain precautions, such as collecting the customer’s CVV2 number. However, under the new proposals all telephone payments will be classed as non-secure, meaning that those travel companies that take payments this way will face the higher charges.

“Visa has decided that transactions taken over the phone are non-secure and therefore a higher rate of interchange”

“What Visa has decided is that any transaction taken over the phone is non-secure and therefore a higher rate of interchange,” explained Stephen Hart, founder of the website Cardswitcher.

“What we’re also seeing in the market is [merchant] acquirers not necessarily giving their customers a cap on their transaction.

“With a travel company, they’ll be taking debit card transactions into the thousands of pounds. The first whammy they get hit with is they’re no longer paying 8p interchange - it’s 0.2% plus 11p over the phone. So the starting rate’s higher.

“The second whammy is there’s no secure discounted rate if they take additional security details from the card, and the third whammy is that from some acquirers there’s no cap.”

Hart’s advice is that businesses should shop around for the best rate offered by a merchant acquirer.

Simon Bunce, Abta head of legal services, said he was aware of the changes: “”The main change will be a move from fixed fees for a transaction to a capped percentage fee on debit card transactions and, as travel companies typically work with high value transactions, this will particularly affect the travel industry.

“We are developing guidance notes for Members to advise them on how the changes will affect their operations and how to manage the additional fees, these will shortly be published in our Member newsletter.”

"For some of the businesses it might not be an easy route to move across on to 100% online payments"

Speaking at the London Travel Trade Consultancy seminar, Dustin Williams of Barclaycard warned there would be a “direct impact” on travel businesses, especially those who process payments over the phone.

“For some of the businesses it might not be an easy route to move across on to 100% online payments,” he said.

In a statement Visa Europe said: “The European Commission has recently moved to regulate consumer interchange fees across Europe. As part of this regulation, interchange fees will be set as a percentage of the transaction amount for both credit and debit cards.

"In advance of this coming into force, and in line with commitments that Visa Europe has made to the European Commission, our Visa UK Board is changing to a percentage-based model for debit cards from March 2015.

"To mitigate the impact of the percentage rate caps set at the European level, we have introduced a cap on the amount of interchange that will be paid per transaction. Even so, acquirers may choose to pass on any increases. We would encourage all card-accepting businesses to shop around for the best deals from acquirers and payment providers in order to get the service they require at a competitive rate.

"Businesses should also ensure that they use the most secure forms of transactions wherever possible to reduce costs, such as using Verified by Visa for e-commerce transactions."

MasterCard said it could not comment on changes to debit fees.