Paying with cards at bakeries and other smaller shops throughout Montenegro is often impossible, and the reason is the high commissions merchants are obliged to pay to banks for using their terminals.
These commissions here are several times higher than in EU countries, where there is a prescribed limit as to how far this fee can go.
Economic analyst Oleg Filipović said that a solution should be sought in such a way that this type of commission payment is attractive for both banks and merchants.
“In Montenegro, bank offers for the introduction and maintenance of this system are different depending on the size of the company, i.e. on the business they implement, so the commission ranges from 1.2 to 3.5 percent, and in some cases even four percent.” said Filipovic.
He stated that in EU countries the price of the commission is lower and limited, so one should look for the reason why certain traders in our country avoid using this form of payment.
“Within the EU, that price is limited, and ranges between 0.2 – 0.3 percent per transaction,” said Filipović.
The complaint of tourists who visited Montenegro this summer is that they do not accept cashless payments in some shops and cafes. It is especially problematic on Sundays, when bakeries and newsagents that do not have card payment terminals are mostly open.
According to Filipović, the solution should be sought in such a way that this type of commission payment is attractive for both banks and merchants.
However, the Montenegrin market is not lagging behind, but is developing rapidly when it comes to cashless payments, claims Filipović.
Last year, around 520,000 cards were issued, and there were six times more transactions with payment cards than with cash.
“The market is developing quite quickly, so according to the data of the Central Bank, last year the number of issued cards was about 525 thousand and six times more transactions were made that way compared to cash transactions,” said Filipović.
Payment by card is, as he added, an easier and more elegant way, due to the availability of money at any time.
However, the introduction of POS terminals is expensive and unprofitable for some traders, so they prefer to avoid their use.
On Sundays in Montenegro, newsagents and bakeries have the most traffic, because supermarkets are closed, but even that did not force merchants to introduce the possibility of cashless payment. It is clear that a solution should be sought considering that Montenegro is a tourist country and that during the season it is visited by a large number of tourists for whom payment cards are the easiest way to pay.
