“Every third hypermarket customer pays by card, so cash and carry chain Metro Holding cannot avoid to introduce card payment any longer,” said Metro financial director József Molnár.

Most Hungarian shopkeepers dislike card payment. According to a recent survey conducted by international card company MasterCard in seven countries, Hungarian shopkeepers dislike card payments the most. According to the opinion of the majority in the survey, mainly card companies and banks benefit from card payments and not shopkeepers. About 77% of the polled in Hungary refused to set up a terminal in their shop, while only 55% on average gave the same response in the Central European survey.

The number of bankcard transactions in Hungary has grown 5%–6% a year recently. Last year 41% of all transactions were connected to shopping. According to figures by the Central Statistics Office, Hungary’s 155,000 shops have a total of 27,200 POS terminals.

Banks charge shopkeepers a commission of 1%–4% of the transaction, but at some places, for example in auction houses, the buyer have to pay the commission if he or she wants to pay by card. A part of the commission then goes to the international card company that takes part in settling each card transaction. Another disadvantage of card transactions for shopkeepers is that they receive the payment two or three days after the transaction.

Discount food chains such as Lidl or Coop, service providers, for example hairdressers, mechanics and retailers are against card payments. Besides high costs, the slowness of card transactions also restrains shopkeepers from introducing this method of payment.