Visa’s ‘Golden Opportunity’

Visa has this week published a report showing the full scale of the boost the UK economy will receive as a result of the Olympic and Paralympic Games in London next year.

The report states that during the intense three week period between the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games, the economy will receive a £621 million spending jump-start. This will be supplemented by a further £129 million spend during the Paralympic Games, taking the total spending increase to £750 million over the entire seven weeks. Perhaps the best part of all this good news is that high street stores will be the major beneficiaries, and are set to receive an extra £185m. So good news all round, it seems. Hurrah!

Cash is Cool could never bemoan booming business that will benefit consumers and retailers alike. However, the aptly named ‘Golden Opportunity’ to which Visa refers, is in fact card issuers chance to take a whopping great slice of retailers’ hard earned takings. Every time a shop receives payment from someone using a Visa card, Visa card issuers take their own hefty share. Recent figures from the British Retail Consortium show that whilst an average cash transaction cost retailers just 1.7p to process, debit cards come out at 9.2p and credit card payments at a stonking 37.1p per transaction That’s over twenty times the cost of cash!

With this in mind, Visa and the other international card schemes obviously have their eye on an Olympic payday – one that will come at the expense of retailers lumbered with substantial charges.

So, friends, readers, cash-lovers; please remember that none of this £750 million influx has to be spent using a Visa card. If you really want to give your local retailers a reason to celebrate, pay in cash. Take a tip from Cash is Cool - whether you are using coins from your piggy bank in your local CStore for that celebratory Snicker Bar as Tom dives to glory, or splashing out a few fivers for a bottle of bubbly when Usain smashes another world record, you can make your favourite retailers the real winners by leaving your Visa card gathering dust in a drawer at home.
 

Thursday, 14th July 2011

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