Barclaycard to impose gambling transaction charge
Bets placed using Barclaycard credit card to be hit with 2.99% fee.
Payments giant Barclaycard is to impose new charges on customers placing a bet using their credit cards, coinciding with a rise in fees for cash withdrawals.
From 28 May this year customers will be charged a fee of 2.99% “ a minimum of £2.99 “ each time a card is used to place a bet or gamble. As a result punters playing a £10 bet would be charged £12.99, paying almost 30% on top of their wager. General withdrawal fees when using a Barclaycard credit card have also risen from 2.5% to 2.99%.
A spokesman for Barclaycard told eGaming Review that the charge was a move to “bring the company in line with the rest of the payments industry”, however he declined to comment on why it had not introduced a charge earlier.
Gambling transactions were previously treated as standard purchases and incurred no extra charges. There are now only a handful of banks that do not charge transaction fees, including RBS, which charges a cash interest rate ranging from 27 to 31.9% on gambling transactions, however punters incur no charges on their initial payments.