For small shops and cafés, the way customers pay can make a real difference to what is left at the end of the day.
You have probably seen the sign: “Cash preferred. Thank you for supporting our small business.”
It is a small request with a practical reason behind it. When a customer taps their card, the business usually pays a fee. A few cents on one sale may seem harmless. Across hundreds of coffees, lunches or shopping baskets, they add up.
Some owners explain this politely. Others get creative, as these two photos show.
How much are businesses paying?
UK retailers paid £1.48 billion in card fees in 2024, according to the British Retail Consortium, more than twice the level in 2019. In the US, debit and general-use prepaid card interchange alone totalled $34.12 billion in 2023. Credit cards and other fee components are outside that figure.
The merchant’s bill can include charges for the issuing bank, card network and payment provider, plus rental or subscription costs. The amount depends on the contract, card type and country.
For a simple example, SumUp’s French pay-as-you-go tariff charges 1.75% on ordinary in-person card payments, with no monthly subscription. Payments with a personal SumUp card are an exception. This is one published tariff, not a market average.
| Monthly card takings | Monthly fees at 1.75% | Annual fees |
| €10,000 | €175 | €2,100 |
| €30,000 | €525 | €6,300 |
| €50,000 | €875 | €10,500 |
Fixed charges make smaller purchases particularly expensive. At Square’s published US Free-plan rate of 2.6% + 15 cents, a $4 coffee costs approximately 25 cents to process: 6.35% of the sale before rounding.
What if those sales were paid in cash?
Imagine a shop taking €30,000 a month, with 70% paid by card at 1.75%. Its variable card fees total €4,410 a year.
If the same sales were paid entirely in cash, it would avoid those fees. That is €4,410 more retained before extra cash-handling costs. Existing subscriptions or terminal contracts would not automatically disappear.
Cash also needs counting, secure storage and banking. Staff time, deposit charges and losses belong in the comparison. And customers who cannot pay their preferred way may shop elsewhere.
A smaller change can still help. If card-paid sales fell from 70% to 50% in that shop, with total sales unchanged, it would avoid €1,260 in annual transaction fees before additional cash costs.
Make cash easier to handle
There is little point saving on card fees if staff then spend hours counting coins or investigating a missing note. Improving cash handling is part of the same job.
smarttill® counts the notes and coins in the drawer automatically when it closes. With the appropriate POS connection and software, it can help a business:
- Spend less time counting: reduce manual till counts and reconciliation work.
- Catch discrepancies sooner: compare cash movements with POS transactions and flag differences.
- Keep a clear record: track cash lifts, top-ups and transaction history.
- Manage change more smoothly: use denomination information and alerts to plan top-ups.
In apg’s Costcutter Porthleven case study, staff previously spent more than two hours a day counting cash, preparing floats and topping up tills. After introducing smarttill®, the store reported retiring its note counter and freeing staff for other tasks. This is a customer example published by apg, not a guaranteed saving for every shop.
How much could a Business save?
Less time counting cash, fewer discrepancies and simpler reconciliation can make a meaningful difference to your daily operations.
The smarttill® Value Calculator helps retailers explore potential time and cost savings. Resellers can also use it to build a business case for their customers, showing how better cash handling could support operational improvements and a return on investment.
Do not forget the tip
A customer pays by card, has no coins and leaves without tipping. It can happen, especially if the terminal has no tipping option.
But card tips are possible. Modern terminals, including SumUp’s French terminal, support them. Cash and digital tipping can sit alongside each other. Resellers can check that prompts, reporting and staff distribution work properly. Tips belong to the team and should stay separate from the business’s fee-savings calculation.
Five useful steps for retailers and their resellers
- Check the real card bill. Review three months of statements, including subscriptions and rental.
- Compare offers: Check Payment Providers offerings using the store’s actual transaction sizes and card mix. Make sure you look at the fees long-term.
- Make cash welcome. A friendly sign explains your preference without creating a difficult checkout experience.
- Measure cash costs too. Include banking, counting time and discrepancies. Use the smarttill® Value Calculator to explore potential savings and build a customer business case.
- Test improvements on one till. Trial smarttill® and compare counting time, cash discrepancies and reconciliation work before and after. Use the results to assess a wider rollout.
- Review the complete checkout. Include change availability, tipping and payment-outage procedures. smarttill® denomination tracking and top-up alerts can help teams replenish change before it runs low.
Any surcharge or discount proposal needs checking against local rules and the payment contract. In the EU, surcharges on ordinary consumer debit and credit cards are generally prohibited, with exceptions for certain card types.
The best “cash welcome” sign starts a friendly conversation. Behind it, good payment advice and better cash handling can help the business keep more of what it earns and give its people more time for customers.
