One restaurateur says small businesses will have to incorporate credit card charges into their pricing, if usage continues at high rates.

Paul Treyvaud is encouraging people to pay with cash to help small businesses save money.

He believes this would be 'a huge saving' for many places.

He told Lunchtime Live: "I don't think people realise just how high credit card commission is in the small businesses.

"If you come in and your bill is €100 and you use your credit card, depending on charges... the restaurant is going to pay anywhere from 20c maybe up to €2.

"It could even be a lot higher if it's an international credit card.

"Basically what I'm looking for is for people to come in and just pay old fashioned [way].

"The amount of money that that could save small businesses is absolutely monumental.

"And right now at the moment we need that more than ever".

He said this is a big chunk of costs.

"The average cost of a small restaurant - just basing it on myself - is probably going to be €1,000 per month on credit card commission.

"That's a huge bill, a huge chunk of money that's going out.

"I would bite my right arm off if I could save €400 or €500 a month on credit card charges right now - it could be a huge saving to the small businesses".

He said while it is up to the customer how they want to pay, "we will all have to incorporate the cost into our pricing if this continues."

And he said this could have a wider impact as well.

"If we're happy by going digitalised and doing everything like that, we're basically giving full control to a bank to process our money - or a Government to process our money.

"And that's an alarm bell, and maybe a different discussion for another day".