Real life Scrooge costs visitors for Christmas dinner at his residence

Rich Carter is a real-life Scrooge as he charges friends, family and guests alike a whopping £75 minimum per head to enjoy Christmas dinner at his own house . . .

A real-life Scrooge has warned his guests he will use a credit card reader to make them pay for their Christmas dinner Rich Carter is fed up with family and friends arriving for booze, turkey and trimmings without coughing up.

So this year the bah humbug businessman plans to get his guests to cough up a minimum of £75 a head.

Rich, 44, who lives in swanky Fulham, west London, said: “This year I’ve pushed the boat out, but they’ll have to tap their credit cards for it.”

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The dad of two won’t have a problem taking card and phone payments. He’s boss and founder of sky-rocketing challenger brand Lopay, Britain’s highest-rated, lowest-cost card reader service.

Wife Nicola, 37, said: “I think he’s mad. I’m making sure that every penny the skinflint takes will go to charity.”

Rich’s company Lopay charges as little as 0.79% on every card or phone payment, compared to as much as 4% by the major card reader firms. And a rewards scheme means some pay nothing.

On his own website, he says: “In future, loyalty programmes will run on tech that streamlines business processes, eliminates customer friction and integrates rewards into every sale. Some payment terminals and card transactions already showcase this with automatic cashback and offers directly sent to users’ accounts and this is where we can expect to see more innovation.

“There’s also a shift towards rewarding businesses, and payment providers are increasingly issuing cards that enable businesses to spend their income immediately, while also offering them the opportunity to add rewards, cashback, and offers to these payments. In short, with a good payment provider a merchant can get savings when they earn money, and rewards when they spend it. “

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