The high costs of international eVouchers on merchants and consumers are forcing merchants to stop accepting them or alternatively raise prices for all customers, said Stoilka Arsova, director of the National Card and Payment Scheme
Exchange fees for food vouchers are really high for the Bulgarian market. A comparison between the size of bcard e-vouchers and the fees introduced by foreign operators shows that those issued by our operators are five times lower than those of foreign ones, and therefore they are becoming more and more in demand.
A day ago, our voucher operators united in an association: “Board of Bulgarian Electronic Food Voucher Operators”. One of their goals will be to reduce the cost of accepting food vouchers to the normal levels of the interchange fee.
Stoilka Arsova, director of the National Card and Payment Scheme, announced that the market share of bcard e-vouchers is close to 30%, with expectations that in 2025 it will reach 45% of the market. She pointed out that the Bulgarian product is more and more in demand by commercial establishments, including in small towns.
Its advantages are that it is offered at lower fees to institutions serving merchants, and its merchant commission is several times lower than international card products on the market.
It is known that there are three card schemes in Bulgaria that offer electronic food voucher products, two of which are international and the third is the Bulgarian National Card and Payment Scheme. In this case, its exchange fee*, which is a component of the commission to the merchant, is 0.3% or 5 times cheaper than the others.
“The Bulgarian product bcard e-vouchers has been developed entirely in accordance with the requirements of Bulgarian legislation and guarantees that all payments for social purposes are processed transparently, in Bulgaria, by participants licensed by the BNB, and through the BORICA system.
Bcard e-vouchers have clear accountability for each payment, do not increase costs and do not create stress on the market, unlike international products, for which there is already a response from the European organization EuroCommerce**.
She cited their view on the impact of accepting international eVouchers on merchants and consumers, namely that the high costs of such acceptance are forcing some merchants to stop accepting them or alternatively to raise prices for all customers. Stoilka Arsova added that for her it is inappropriate to process a national social product outside the country.
The operators issuing the national electronic food voucher announced the creation of the association “Board of Bulgarian Electronic Food Voucher Operators” in order to focus attention on the Bulgarian product as a profitable alternative to international ones. “Our goal is to protect the interests of all participants in the chain – not only of food voucher operators, but also of traders and employers. In recent days, it is indicative that there is a problem, but it does not come from the prices of bcard e-vouchers, but from the fees of international products.”, said Radko Vragov, chairman of the newly formed association and procurator of Microfund, one of the 8 operators offering bcard e-vouchers.
5 of the companies are founders of the association – Microfund, City Invest Group, Motobul, Fiducia and Myfin. Others are expected to join soon.