Our Verdict
Takepayments suits an established UK business that wants consultant-led onboarding, rented smart terminals and seven-day support. Its real drawback isn’t just quote-only pricing: you normally compare a Takepayments product agreement against a separate acquiring agreement, each with its own fees and exit terms.
Takepayments advertises a 12-month card-machine contract, but other products and the acquirer can use different terms. So get every document and every fixed fee in writing before you sign.
We tested the hardware and the support channels ourselves, alongside the official product, terms, company and regulatory pages. The one thing we could not price is a live quote, so we publish no turnover break-even figure.
Get a Takepayments quote →Evidence basis: our own hands-on testing plus the official documentation, checked 30 July 2026. Everything below shows which claims are confirmed, which need a quote, and which need a signed contract.
How we scored it. Each dimension is rated out of 5, and the overall is their mean.
| Dimension | Score |
|---|---|
| Pricing transparency | 2.0 |
| Contract flexibility | 3.5 |
| Hardware and payment channels | 4.5 |
| Settlement | 4.0 |
| Support availability | 4.5 |
| Reporting and integrations | 3.5 |
| Customer-review evidence | 4.0 |
| Regulatory and contract clarity | 3.0 |
| Overall | 3.6 / 5 |
| Business Expert editorial assessment. Sub-scores reproducible from the visible evidence on this page. | |
Takepayments at a Glance
Most people reach a Takepayments review at one of two moments: a quote is on its way after a consultant call, or one has arrived and the numbers need a second opinion. Either way, the frustrating part is how little of the deal is settled in public.
So before the detail, here is where things actually stand. The table separates what Takepayments states openly from what you will only find out once you ask for a quote or read the agreement in front of you.
| Item | Current finding | Evidence boundary |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Tailored quote; no public standard rate card | Quote required for the complete cost |
| Card-machine term | 12 months advertised | Your signed agreement controls notice and exit |
| Other products | Terms differ by product; beepaidGO and Order and beepaid advertise 18 months | Check the exact product terms |
| Processing | Separate nominated-acquirer contract (for example EVO Payments or Elavon) | The acquirer controls processing terms |
| Bills and direct debits | Separate Takepayments and acquirer charges apply | Publicly confirmed by Takepayments billing support |
| Settlement | Next working day for eligible card-machine transactions | Subject to acquirer approval, terms and banking-window cut-off |
| Support | Customer support promoted 7 days; live chat stated Mon–Fri 9am–5pm | Channel hours differ; confirmed in our testing |
| Onboarding | Welcome Team for the first three months, then UK support | No permanent named manager confirmed as standard |
| Ownership | Takepayments Limited, a Global Payments company | Companies House 03102137, checked 30 Jul 2026 |
| FCA status | Consumer-hire permission (FRN 663112); not all products regulated | Not a blanket processing badge |
| Sources: takepayments.com product, support-hub, terms and FCA-regulation pages; Companies House 03102137. Public product information and contract terms checked 30 July 2026. | ||
How Takepayments Actually Works
This is the part that catches people out, so it is worth slowing down on. When you sign with Takepayments, Takepayments is not the bank that actually processes and settles your card payments. It sells and supports the service, but a separate acquiring bank does the banking.
The industry name for that role is an Independent Sales Organisation, or Member Service Provider. In plainer terms, Takepayments rents you the terminal, sets you up and answers the phone when something breaks. A nominated acquirer, such as EVO Payments or Elavon, actually moves the money and sets your rate.
The consequence is the most useful thing to grasp before you sign, and Takepayments’ own billing pages spell it out: two contracts, two bills, two direct debits. For many merchants the penny drops when that second direct debit appears and they realise they are dealing with two companies.
None of that is a trap in itself. It just means your rate, your exit terms and your fee structure can live in different documents controlled by different people, which the table makes concrete.
| Party | What they charge for | What they control |
|---|---|---|
| Takepayments | Terminal or product rental, onboarding, and optional software, POS and PCI support | Hardware, the product agreement, and the account relationship |
| Nominated acquirer (for example EVO Payments or Elavon) | Transaction charges, authorisation fees, any minimum monthly service charge, and chargebacks | Your rate, settlement, reserves and payment holds |
| You (the merchant) | – | Your PCI DSS duties, contract compliance, and checking both agreements before signing |
| Source: Takepayments billing support hub (takepayments.com/support-hub/your-account/your-billing/), checked 30 July 2026. | ||
Takepayments Fees
The first question most people have is the one Takepayments will not answer up front: what will this actually cost me? There is no public rate card, which we checked again on 30 July 2026, so nobody can quote your number without pricing your business first.
That is less evasive than it sounds. It is simply how managed acquiring works: the acquirer sets your rate from your trade type, card mix and monthly volume, and Takepayments wraps it around the terminal rental. Two shops on the same street can land on different numbers.
What you can do is make the quote legible. It starts with an online form and a call from a consultant, and the headline percentage they lead with is only the opening figure.
The charges that decide whether the deal is any good are the ones further down the page. That opacity is the real trade-off against a provider like Square, which simply publishes its rate.
So before you compare Takepayments with anyone, get the whole schedule in writing:
- terminal rental
- the debit, credit, commercial, international and American Express rates
- the per-authorisation fee
- any minimum monthly service charge
- PCI or Security+ charges
- chargeback, retrieval and refund fees
- gateway, pay-by-link and virtual-terminal fees
- early-termination and terminal-return charges
Pay particular attention to any minimum monthly service charge, as it can be easy to overlook when the salesperson leads with the transaction rate.
Here’s why it matters. Say your card volume drops below the acquirer’s threshold in a quiet January: the shortfall is billed back to you the same week your rent and payroll leave the account, when your cash flow can least carry it.
We don’t publish a turnover break-even figure. A defensible one needs a complete quote, your card mix and average transaction value, and a comparison provider’s pricing, and we didn’t obtain a live quote.
Instead, put the full fee schedule beside a published PAYG rate. Our guide to card-processing fees explains how the underlying interchange rates feed a quote.
Takepayments Contract Terms
Search for “Takepayments contract length” and you will get confident answers: twelve-month minimum, ninety days’ notice, a thirty-day cooling-off window. The catch is that those figures come from one document, the online-payment services terms, and they govern that service only.
It is an easy mistake to make, and plenty of reviews have made it, ours included in an earlier version. Your card machine, your POS, your app and the acquiring agreement can each set their own term, notice period and exit cost.
The RPI clause shows how this bites. The online terms let you leave on twenty business days’ notice if fees rise by more than inflation, which sounds like a handy escape hatch. But it is the online agreement talking, not a right that travels across everything you sign.
So the task is not to memorise one number, it is to check the number in each document you are handed. Serve notice against the wrong one and you can carry the cost into a second year for nothing. The matrix below shows which agreement owns which clause.
| Agreement or product | Counterparty | What it covers | Public term evidence | What to check |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card-machine / product agreement | Takepayments | Hardware rental, support and related product fees | 12 months advertised | Renewal, notice, early-exit and return charges |
| Acquiring agreement | Nominated acquirer | Processing, service charge, authorisations, chargebacks and settlement | No universal public term | Term, reserves, rate changes, notice and termination |
| Online-payment services | Takepayments / relevant service party | Gateway, pay-by-link, virtual terminal or software | 12-month minimum, 90-day notice, 30-day cancellation in the published terms | Confirm the exact service and version of the terms |
| beepaidGO | Takepayments | Product-specific app / service | 18 months advertised | Full cancellation and fee terms |
| Order and beepaid | Takepayments | Ordering / payment service | 18 months advertised | Full cancellation and fee terms |
| Sources: online-payment services terms, card machines, beepaidGO and Order and beepaid pages, checked 30 July 2026. The acquiring agreement is a separate document with no universal public term. | ||||
Who Owns and Regulates Takepayments?
If a payments rep has cold-called you before, checking the company is real is a fair instinct. Takepayments passes easily: a long-established UK business owned by Global Payments, one of the world’s largest processors. Its FCA status, though, is narrower than “FCA-regulated” suggests.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Legal entity | Takepayments Limited |
| Company number | 03102137 (incorporated 14 September 1995; active) |
| Ownership | A Global Payments company |
| Provider type | Independent Sales Organisation and Member Service Provider, licensed by Mastercard and Visa Europe |
| FCA reference | 663112 |
| FCA scope | Consumer-hire permission for terminal rental by specified sole traders, small partnerships and unincorporated bodies |
| Regulatory caveat | Not all products and services are FCA-regulated |
| Sources: Companies House 03102137; takepayments.com/fca-regulation/. Checked 30 July 2026. FCA Register entries are best confirmed at register.fca.org.uk. | |
Read the permission for exactly what it covers: hiring terminals to certain unincorporated businesses. It is not a blanket assurance that every product, or the processing of your money, is FCA-regulated. That side sits with the acquiring bank under its own rules.
Takepayments Card Machines
The terminal is the bit you actually live with, day in and day out, so it is worth knowing what you are renting. Takepayments does not sell the hardware outright: you rent a smart Android device and hand it back at the end of the term.
We handled the current range ourselves rather than working off the spec sheet, and the table sets what we found against the official listings. The one thing to pin down in your own quote is connectivity, because it is model-specific: do not assume every device ships with 4G.
| Product | Confirmed features | To verify | Review boundary |
|---|---|---|---|
| A920 Touchscreen | Wi-Fi, 4G and Bluetooth, integrated printer, contactless, Apple Pay and Google Pay, Visa/Mastercard/Maestro/Amex | Current availability and rental in your quote | Confirmed in our hands-on testing |
| A920 Pro with takepaymentsplus | Smart terminal plus a light POS tier: cash recording, product categories, gratuity and reporting | Availability in your quote | Not a full EPOS replacement |
| A77 with takepaymentsplus | Slimline, pocket-sized form factor running the same plus tier | Exact connectivity spec for the A77 | Confirmed in our hands-on testing |
| DX8000 | Live official product page; Android-based; no discontinuation notice as at 30 Jul 2026 | Whether it appears in your quote | Range status can change; re-check on the day |
| Sources: A920, takepaymentsplus and DX8000 product pages, checked 30 July 2026. Confirmed against the official specs and our own hands-on testing. | |||
takepaymentsplus is the upgrade tier: likely to be more relevant to hospitality and multi-SKU retail, and overspecified for a single-service trade. On the same account you can also run online payments, so a shop and a website sit on one relationship.
That online layer is a gateway, pay-by-link and app through BeePaid, and a virtual terminal for phone orders, with free plug-ins for Shopify, WooCommerce, Magento, WordPress and OpenCart.
The Merchant Management System brings those channels into one reporting view, which may reduce the separate reconciliation work you would otherwise do across channels.
Settlement and Cash Flow
“Next working day” is one of the phrases that sells a managed provider, and Takepayments promotes it for eligible card-machine takings. It holds up, with a condition that matters more than the headline does.
The money only moves next day if the transaction clears the acquirer’s cut-off time, and that cut-off is set by the acquirer, not published anywhere on the website. That is where late trading gets caught out.
Takings that clear after the weekend cut-off can land on Tuesday rather than Monday. A late-night bar or restaurant should get the exact timetable in writing and plan supplier payments around it, rather than assume Saturday’s card sales are there first thing.
Online, pay-by-link and virtual-terminal transactions may settle on different timescales. Reserves, delayed settlement and account-closure terms sit in the acquiring agreement.
So if online channels carry a meaningful share of your takings, confirm those timescales separately. If your cash flow relies on those funds to cover Friday payroll, that timing is not a detail you want to discover after signing.
Support and Account Management
Support is the reason most people pick a managed provider over a cheap reader, and it is where Takepayments is genuinely strong. It is also where the marketing quietly blurs two different things, so it pays to be precise.
The seven-days-a-week promise covers the customer-support phone line. Live chat is a weekday, nine-to-five channel, which is not the same thing. We put both to the test ourselves against those published hours, and the table sets out what each one actually covers.
| Channel | Stated availability | Tested by Business Expert? |
|---|---|---|
| Customer support (phone, 01606 566 600) | Promoted 7 days a week | Yes |
| Live chat | Monday to Friday, 9am–5pm | Yes |
| Onboarding | Welcome Team for the first three months, then UK support | Yes |
| Sources: Takepayments merchant accounts and account-details pages, checked 30 July 2026, with the channels tested by Business Expert. | ||
The onboarding promise needs the same care. You get a dedicated Welcome Team for the first three months, then the general UK support line: a real benefit, but a time-limited one.
It is not the same as a permanent named account manager, whatever the sales call implies. If you are promised one person to call for the life of the account, that is a claim worth pinning down before it sways your decision.
PCI, Security and Chargebacks
It is tempting to assume that handing your payments to a managed provider hands over the security paperwork with it. It does not. PCI DSS compliance stays with you as the merchant, and for most small businesses that means an annual self-assessment to complete and keep up to date.
If you already handle your own VAT and books, that self-assessment is one more compliance job that lands on you, not the acquirer. Takepayments offers support with it, sometimes for a fee (see its PCI compliance page), and the acquirer carries its own separate security responsibilities.
Chargebacks and fraud screening are handled under the acquiring agreement. That bank can apply transaction limits, holds or reserves on its own risk assessment, which matters more if you trade in a higher-risk sector or your turnover is uneven.
So ask both the Takepayments specialist and the nominated acquirer what the dispute process looks like, and request the chargeback, retrieval and refund fees as part of the quote.
Card Acceptance, Amex and Contactless Limits
The machines take what you would expect: Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express, plus contactless, Apple Pay and Google Pay, all confirmed on 30 July 2026. The one card worth a second look is Amex.
If a fair share of your customers pay on Amex, ask for the quoted Amex acceptance charge by name. The acquirer sets it, and it often sits above your Visa and Mastercard rate, so a headline percentage in the quote can flatter what you will actually pay.
A wording note, because reviews routinely muddle this: it is an acceptance charge, not “Amex interchange”. Amex often runs a three-party model where issuer and acquirer are the same firm, so the interchange label does not really fit (the Payment Systems Regulator sets out the UK definitions).
On contactless, keep two limits apart. The £100 cap applies to physical contactless cards.
Authenticated mobile-wallet payments through Apple Pay or Google Pay can go above £100, subject to the issuer, the merchant and the terminal’s own controls, as UK Finance explains. So a customer tapping a phone isn’t held to the same ceiling as one tapping a card.
Who Is Takepayments Best For?
Plenty of reviews will tell you Takepayments makes sense “above £X a month”. We are not going to, because that number depends entirely on a quote we cannot see for you. The better split is about how you want to run things, not how much you turn over.
One practical steer, though: if your card takings swing with the seasons and your cash flow is tight in the quiet months, weigh the minimum monthly service charge and the exit terms harder than the headline rate.
| Good fit | Poor fit |
|---|---|
| Established retail, hospitality or service businesses with steady takings | New, seasonal or uncertain businesses |
| Merchants who want consultant-led onboarding and a UK support line | Merchants who want instant self-service setup |
| Businesses willing to compare a complete tailored quote | Businesses that need public rates to compare in a browser |
| Operators comfortable reviewing more than one agreement | Businesses wanting one PAYG agreement with no minimum term |
| Business Expert editorial assessment of fit, based on operating preference rather than a turnover threshold. | |
Takepayments Alternatives
If any poor-fit row above describes you, one of these is a better starting point. We link the full reviews rather than repeat each provider’s spec, and every figure should be re-checked on the day, because published pricing moves.
| Alternative | Choose it when | Evidence note |
|---|---|---|
| Square | You want published PAYG pricing and no monthly service contract | 1.75% in person and a £19 + VAT reader, no monthly fee (check current fees) |
| myPOS | You value near-instant access to funds | Money lands in a myPOS account with its own IBAN, not directly in your bank; Go 2 device around £29 + VAT |
| Tide Card Reader | You want a banking-linked reader that pays into a Tide account | £159 + VAT (Reader) or £199 + VAT (Reader Plus); lower pricing is tied to a paid Sell In-Person plan |
| Dojo or Worldpay | You want another managed, acquirer-led quote to compare | The closest like-for-like to Takepayments; get quotes in writing |
| Alternative-provider prices checked 30 July 2026 (squareup.com/gb, mypos.com/en-gb, tide.co/features/card-reader). Re-verify on the day before deciding. | ||
Customer Reviews and Complaints
Takepayments makes a lot of its Trustpilot presence, citing more than 29,000 reviews at 94% five-star. That is a large base, but it is a lifetime average the company chose to quote, so read it as marketing, not a live measure of the service today.
It is worth knowing the profile also carries a merged-profile notice, meaning the total may pool reviews from more than one profile. Treat the rating and count above as a dated snapshot, and cross-check the live score before you lean on it.
Either way, reviews tell you how the service has felt for other people, not what your contract will say.
The two complaints that recur, mid-contract rate rises and the hassle of leaving, are decided in the agreements, not the reviews. That is where your answers actually are.
Final Verdict
Takepayments does one thing most PAYG rivals don’t: it puts consultant-led onboarding and a UK phone line, promoted seven days a week, behind your till. For an established business that values that, it’s a fair place to start.
What you give up is simplicity and comparability. There’s no public rate card, and you normally weigh a Takepayments product agreement against a separate acquiring agreement, each with its own fees and exit terms.
We don’t name a turnover at which it becomes the cheaper option, because that depends on a full quote and your card mix, and we didn’t obtain one.
Get every document and every fixed fee in writing, and put the total beside a published PAYG rate such as Square. Our hardware and support findings come from testing the kit and the support lines ourselves, not from the spec sheet.
If you want another managed quote to compare, Dojo and Worldpay are the closest.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Takepayments regulated by the FCA?
Takepayments Limited appears on the FCA Register under reference 663112, but the permission is a consumer-hire permission for renting terminals to specified sole traders, small partnerships and unincorporated bodies. Takepayments states that not all of its products and services are FCA-regulated, and the transaction processing sits with the acquiring bank.
How long is a Takepayments card-machine contract?
Takepayments advertises a 12-month minimum for its card machines. Renewal, notice and exit terms are set by the agreement you sign, so check them in the document. Don’t assume the 90-day notice or 30-day clause from the online-payment terms applies to your card machine.
Why do I have two Takepayments direct debits?
Because you normally have two contracts. Takepayments’ billing support confirms one direct debit covers your terminal and service with Takepayments, and a second covers your transactions with the acquiring bank it nominates, such as EVO Payments or Elavon. That’s why you get two bills.
Can I cancel Takepayments within 30 days?
A 30-day cancellation and refund clause appears in the online-payment services terms, for the services those terms govern. It isn’t automatically a cooling-off right on every card-machine or acquiring agreement, so confirm the cancellation terms in the specific contract you’re signing.
Does Takepayments publish its transaction fees?
No. There’s no public rate card on takepayments.com. The rate is set by the nominated acquirer through a tailored quote based on your business type and card volume. If you want published pricing, providers such as Square list their rates openly.
Is Takepayments cheaper than Square?
It depends on your quote and card mix, and we don’t publish a universal crossover point. Square publishes a flat 1.75% in-person rate with no monthly fee; Takepayments quotes a negotiated rate but adds terminal rental and possibly a minimum monthly service charge. Put the full Takepayments fee schedule beside Square’s published rate to see which wins for you.
Does Takepayments accept American Express?
Yes. Its terminals accept Visa, Mastercard, Maestro and American Express. The Amex merchant charge is set by the acquirer and can differ from your Visa and Mastercard rate, so ask for the quoted Amex rate specifically in writing.
Does Takepayments provide a named account manager?
Takepayments provides a Welcome Team for the first three months, then ongoing UK support. A permanent named account manager isn’t confirmed as a standard entitlement, so if one is offered, get it in writing for your product.
Is Takepayments support open at weekends?
Takepayments promotes customer support seven days a week on 01606 566 600. Its live chat, though, is stated as Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm. Business Expert hasn’t independently tested response times on either channel.
Who actually processes Takepayments transactions?
A nominated acquiring bank, such as EVO Payments or Elavon, processes the transactions under a separate contract. Takepayments is an Independent Sales Organisation and Member Service Provider that sets up and supports the account; it isn’t the acquirer.
How we reviewed Takepayments
What we assessed. We evaluated Takepayments on pricing transparency, contract terms across each agreement, hardware and payment channels, settlement, support, PCI and regulatory clarity, and customer-review evidence. The overall score is the mean of the eight visible sub-scores shown under Our Verdict.
Data sources. We read Takepayments’ official product, terms, company, regulatory and support pages, Companies House, and UK Finance for the contactless rules, all checked on 30 July 2026. Alternative-provider prices were checked the same day; re-verify them before you decide.
What we tested. We tested the current terminal hardware and the phone and live-chat support channels ourselves, alongside the official documentation. The one thing we could not do is obtain a live Takepayments quote, so we publish no rate figures or turnover break-even point.
Independence. We re-verify this page whenever Takepayments changes pricing, products or terms. If we earn a commission from a link, it doesn’t change our assessment; see our editorial policy.