Dhamecha is to add charges for stores paying by business credit and debit cards in an effort to keep costs down, the wholesaler has confirmed.

The Midlands and London cash and carry chain is expected to introduce the ‘handling fee’ from July onwards, though the level is yet to be confirmed.

The company’s operations director Garry Jarvis told Better Retailing: “I am happy to confirm that there will be no charges for personal cards but we are still finalising our strategy for corporate cards, which has come about due to increasing card acquiring costs over the recent past.

“The exact details are yet to be worked out but there will be a small handling fee levied on transactions using corporate credit and debit cards only.

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“We are encouraging our customers to pay through the Dhamecha Mobile App which incurs no fees and rewards customers with special discounts on key lines.”

Retailers were sympathetic to the move. Ravi Raveendran, Owner. Colombo Food and Wine in Hounslow already pays by other means and said he understands the impact higher transaction fees on business cards have in his own store.

Dipak Shah of H&R News in Camberley, Surrey added:” They are encouraging stores to pay using their app, which is a bank transfer, or by personal card. They also have good deals for paying by app, 50p or £1 off certain lines, which has been going on for around six months. Dhamecha are by far the cheapest, so they are an important wholesaler for us.”

Jarvis concluded: “We want to offer customers competitive prices with outstanding service and have taken this decision to ensure we can deliver on both.”

Dhamecha is far from the first wholesaler to introduce charges for certain card types. In 2023 both United Wholesale and United Wholesale Grocers in Scotland reportedly introduced a 1% surcharge on payments via commercial cards.

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