Compare Card Machines in the United Kingdom

How we compare card machines

We list 16 card machine providers selling to UK businesses, and a published rate card exists for 10 providers. Every figure comes from the provider's own pricing page, normally quoted before VAT. Where a provider quotes instead of publishing, the table says so rather than showing a figure invented on its behalf.

The calculator asks for your monthly card turnover and your average sale. It turns each published percentage and pence-per-sale charge into a monthly bill at those inputs, adds any monthly fee, and sorts by the total. Providers with no published rate sit below the priced ones. Commission does not change the order.

Every fee a card machine charges beyond the headline rate

Two facts sit underneath every rate here. The first is interchange, the slice your provider pays the cardholder's bank, capped by regulation at 0.2% on debit and 0.3% on credit for UK consumer cards, with scheme fees on top. No provider prices below its own input cost, which puts a floor under every in-person rate. A blended rate charges one percentage across everything. Interchange-plus, which Adyen quotes as Interchange++ (custom), passes the real interchange through and adds a margin, so your bill moves with your card mix.

The second fact is that you cannot pass any of it on. Surcharging a consumer for paying by card has been unlawful in the UK since January 2018, so a card machine fee is a cost your margin absorbs.

On a coffee the pence charge matters more than a tenth of a percent. On a large invoice it is noise. Two more rates do real damage depending on who your customers are:

A flat-rate provider absorbing Amex at its ordinary number is worth real money if your customers expense their lunch. PCI is billed monthly whether you sell anything or not. Read the bracket: some include compliance but charge a penalty while you remain uncertified, which you can trigger by not completing a questionnaire.

Non-UK cards are their own row: Square adds +1.95% non-UK cards and TYL by NatWest lists None, and in a tourist town that row can outweigh the headline rate. Stripe lists a chargeback at £20 and Square lists Free. If you run a returns-heavy shop, the Refund fee row is not an edge case.

Pay as you go or a monthly plan for a card machine?

Pay as you go means you buy a reader once, pay a flat percentage on what you take, and owe nothing in a quiet month; the higher rate is the price of owing nothing when you are shut. A monthly plan bundles the terminal, support and often PCI into a subscription, with a lower rate underneath and a term attached.

Where the row says get quote, the number you get is the number a salesperson decides you will accept. The crossover is about volume, which is what the calculator is for: a fixed fee is dead weight at low turnover and trivial at high turnover, and a rate difference does the opposite. Enter your actual takings.

If you trade seasonally, a monthly fee bills you through every closed month, so pay as you go is often right even at a worse rate.

Card machine contract length and exit fees

What you sign is often two agreements: a merchant services agreement with the acquirer, which sets the rate and the term, and a hardware hire agreement, sometimes with a separate leasing company, which can outlive the first. Ask which company each document is with.

Where the exit charge reads contact provider, get the figure in writing rather than assume there is not one. Establish three more things on anything with a term: the notice period and whether it renews automatically, whether the rate is fixed for the term (scheme fee increases are commonly passed through), and who owns the terminal at the end.

Free or cheap card machine hardware, and what pays for it

A terminal advertised at a token price is a genuine offer. It is also a payment that has moved into one of three places: the rate, a monthly hire line you pay indefinitely, or a fixed term whose exit charge protects the provider.

The device type decides whether you are buying a card machine or a till. Zeller lists a built-in POS as Yes, while Dojo lists No and expects you to bring an EPOS system.

Connectivity decides whether it works where you trade: a terminal without a SIM is not a market stall terminal. Offline payments decide what happens when the broadband drops mid-service. Tap to Pay on a phone needs no hardware purchase at all (you still pay the transaction rate), and for a sole trader still testing card acceptance that is a sensible first step before buying a terminal.

When a card machine actually pays you

Settlement is the gap between a customer tapping and the money being spendable in your bank account.

Read those rows for two things. First, weekends and bank holidays: next business day means Friday takings land on Monday, and hospitality trades when the banking calendar is closed. Second, whether fast settlement is included or sold. Where it is sold it is normally a percentage of the money you are being paid early: Square lists instant payouts at 1.95% and Stripe lists 1% min 40p. Used daily that is a second transaction fee.

Money that reaches a provider's own account in seconds still has to reach the account your suppliers and HMRC are paid from, and that transfer can carry its own charge: myPOS lists it as £1.50 (bank transfer). Fast to a wallet is not fast to your bank.