We track 16 card machine providers in the United Kingdom: 10 with a published price and 6 quoting on request. Every price below comes from the vendor's own pricing page as our records stood on 2 Oct 2026, and this page will not be updated as those prices change.
How many card machine providers publish a price?
A provider counts as publishing a price when its pricing page gives enough to estimate a monthly bill without contacting sales. One that shows a headline or starting rate and quotes for the rest is counted as quoting on request. On that test, 63% of this market can be priced without asking.
- Publishes a price
- 1063%
- Quotes on request
- 638%
In-person rate
1.4%median
Published by 11 of 16 providers we track
Online rate
1.45%median
Published by 10 of 16 providers we track
Monthly fee
£0median
Published by 13 of 16 providers we track
Each figure above counts every provider that publishes that one number, including any that quote for the rest of their pricing, so the sample behind each figure differs.
What do card machines cost in the United Kingdom?
Estimated monthly bill at each business size in the table, from the same cost engine as our live comparison table. Providers that quote on request are left out; an unknown price is never counted as zero.
| Business size | Providers costed | Median | Lowest to highest |
|---|---|---|---|
| Small merchant | 10 | £159.50 | £114 to £200 |
| Established merchant | 10 | £319 | £213 to £350 |
| High-volume merchant | 10 | £797.50 | £510 to £875 |
For the largest business size in the table (high-volume merchant), the dearest option with a published price costs 1.7 times the cheapest, £875 against £510 a month.
How we compiled this report
Prices come from vendors' own pricing pages only, never from review sites or directories, and no commercial relationship with a vendor changes a figure here. Definitions, limitations and corrections: how we compile these reports.
Conclusion
A merchant taking £20,000 a month on card pays £152 a month more at the top of the published in-person range than at the bottom: 1.75% against 0.99%. Online the distance is wider, £240 a month between 1.3% and 2.5%. Every published rate in this market is a flat all-in percentage rather than an interchange-plus margin, so those are like-for-like figures, and the sum is simply the merchant's own volume times the difference in rate.
Set against the whole bill, the differences are moderate. The modelled monthly cost for a small merchant (£10,000 a month) runs £114 to £200, median £159.50; for an established merchant (£20,000) £213 to £350, median £319; for a high-volume merchant (£50,000) £510 to £875, median £797.50. At that largest size the dearest published option costs about 1.7 times the cheapest, narrow by the standards of this quarter's series. The monthly fee hardly moves it: nothing to £50, with a median of nothing.
Ten of the sixteen providers publish enough to be costed. Of the six that quote on request, two show a headline rate on their pricing page and four show no flat rate at all, and the eleven in-person rates above include one of those headlines. The median published rate is 1.4% in person and 1.45% online. A merchant hoping for less than 0.99% in person is, on this quarter's figures, asking for a rate that none of the sixteen publishes.
