SINGAPORE — Visa today (July 12) explained its decision to sever ties with Singapore’s two largest taxi operators, meaning passengers will not be able to pay for fares using Visa credit cards from Monday. The dispute centres on the companies’ unwillingness to remove a 10 per cent surcharge that applies to all cab fares paid using credit and debit cards. The global payments company said in a statement today that it made its decision, first reported by TODAY on July 10, to uphold its no surcharge protection policy, which “protects cardholders from paying additional fees simply for using their payment cards of choice”. On July 10, TODAY reported that Visa had issued an ultimatum to ComfortDelGro to stop the surcharge, saying it would pull out otherwise. “We believe that consumers should be free to choose their preferred form of payment and those who decide to pay with payment cards should not be penalised,” Ms Ooi Huey Tyng, Visa’s country manager for Singapore and Brunei, said in the statement. “For Singapore’s commuters and international visitors the use of payment cards makes paying for taxi fares more convenient, secure and reliable. Unfortunately after lengthy discussions with ComfortDelGro we could not reach an agreement that was fair to consumers, so we were left with no choice but to remove Visa card acceptance.” Ms Ooi added that Visa’s door remains open to ComfortDelGro and TransCab. “Surcharging unfairly shifts the cost of doing business onto consumers,” she said. “We remain open to working with ComfortDelGro and other taxi companies and welcome the opportunity to talk with them further to review their surcharging practices.” Visa also said that it has been working, together with other financial institutions, to reduce surcharging in Singapore and provide greater protection to consumers. According to Visa, an audit conducted in August last year found that 9 per cent of Singaporean merchants impose surcharges or minimum spend policies, but that figure had reduced to 2.8 per cent by November. “Our research shows a strong shift away from the practice of merchant surcharging. We firmly stand by our belief that cardholders are entitled to the right to card choice without penalty and we will continue to work with our financial institution partners and merchants to ensure the practice of card surcharging is not permitted in Singapore,” said Ms Ooi.