Revolut Card Reader at a Glance
Revolut withdrew the Reader from sale in 2026. Its Business help centre states that the Reader “is no longer available for purchase”, and its Pro help centre that “we no longer sell Revolut Readers”. Checked 4 August 2026.
- Already own one: nothing changes. Same 0.8% + 2p on UK consumer cards in person, same 24-hour settlement.
- Faults inside the first year: Revolut offers a discounted Terminal or a refund matching what the Reader cost.
- Buying now: you cannot. The cheapest current Revolut device is the Lite Terminal at £129 + VAT; the Terminal is £169 + VAT.
| If you are asking | The answer |
|---|---|
| Buying new | No. The Reader is discontinued and cannot be ordered |
| Existing device | Keeps working as normal, at the same rate |
| Re-pairing | Supported for a Reader you already own |
| UK consumer cards | 0.8% + 2p in person |
| Commercial or international | 2.6% + 2p in person |
| American Express | Not accepted on the Reader |
| Revolut POS | Works with an existing Reader |
| Cheapest replacement | Lite Terminal, £129 + VAT |
| Replace a working one now | Usually not, until it fails or leaves warranty |
| Checked against Revolut’s help centre, developer docs and pricing, 25 August 2026. | |
Verdict
Keep the Reader you own. Revolut has stopped selling the device but has not touched what it charges, so the 0.8% + 2p you signed up for still runs on your UK consumer-card sales.
That is a rate the company no longer offers at £49 of hardware to anybody. We compared the replacement cost against what you already hold: replacing a working Reader early costs £129 and buys you nothing you do not have.
If you came here to buy one, that decision is closed. The entry price into Revolut card acceptance has moved from £49 to £129, and that is a different sum against Square’s £19.
One thing to know before you go looking. Revolut’s own card-machine marketing page was still advertising “Get the Revolut Reader for £49” when we checked it on 4 August 2026, the same day two of its help centre pages said the device had been withdrawn.
We checked all three. The help centre is the one that is right, and a company still running the price of a product it has stopped selling is not a small thing to leave up.
Best For
Owners who already pay for Revolut Business get the best of this. The plan fee is a cost you are already carrying, so the Reader adds nothing monthly and keeps takings inside the same Revolut app as your banking, one transfer away from your Business balance.
Existing owners keep the pricing they already had, even though Revolut has withdrawn the hardware from sale.
We ran both rates at a £40 average sale: above roughly £1,100 a month in consumer-card takings, 0.8% + 2p still beats Square’s 1.75% even after the £10 Basic plan. On those volumes you are better off where you are.
Not Ideal For
Do not plan a second till around it. There is no way to order another Reader or pair a new one, so a business opening a second location cannot standardise on the same device and will be running two different machines.
If you trade as a UK sole trader, none of this reaches you in any case, and not only because Revolut’s own pages disagree on whether it banks you. The Reader is gone. Revolut Pro, where Revolut points unincorporated individuals, no longer sells Readers either.
And if you are still weighing the Reader against Square’s £19 hardware, stop. That comparison ended when the product did.
Key Facts
Status: withdrawn from sale in 2026, which we confirmed on Revolut’s own help centre. Devices already bought keep working and keep their rate.
Hardware, when it was sold: £49 + VAT. Revolut’s current range is the Lite Terminal at £129 + VAT and the Terminal at £169 + VAT.
Warranty: one year. On a fault inside it, Revolut offers a discounted Terminal or a refund matching the Reader’s cost.
In-person rate: 0.8% + 2p on UK consumer Visa, Mastercard, Apple Pay, and Google Pay across all paid plans, unchanged by the withdrawal. Commercial and international cards cost 2.6% + 2p, and the Reader does not take American Express at all.
Online rate: 1% + 20p standard, the same for Revolut Pay online; 1.7% + 20p for consumer Amex. Revolut Pay is 0.5% + 2p in person.
Plans: Basic £10/month flat. Grow £35/month billed monthly, or £30 if you pay for the year up front. Scale £125/month billed monthly, or £90 annually. No free tier since March 2025.
Settlement: takings are usually ready to pay out from the Revolut Business Merchant account within 24 hours, and you move them into your Business account from there. The seven-day first-payout hold that circulates online is documented for Revolut Pro; we found no current Business documentation imposing the same mandatory hold.
No contract on the hardware. The Reader was bought outright, so stopping costs you nothing.
| Revolut source | What it states | What it means for you |
|---|---|---|
| Business help centre | Reader “no longer available for purchase” | You cannot buy or activate a new one |
| Reader setup page | Devices you already own “continue to work as usual” | Existing owners keep the rate and can re-pair |
| POS help page | Existing Reader connects to Revolut POS | The earlier “no real POS” framing was wrong |
| Developer FAQ | Reader takes Visa, Mastercard, Maestro only | No Amex at the counter |
| Card-machine marketing page | Was still advertising “£49 Reader” on 4 Aug 2026 | Marketing lagged the help centre; believe the help centre |
| Business Terms (28 Apr 2026) | Include “new sole traders” | Eligibility conflicts with the help centre; see below |
| Business fees page | Consumer 0.8% + 2p; commercial/international 2.6% + 2p | The headline rate is not the rate on every card |
| Each row read directly on Revolut’s own site; availability and pricing checked 25 August 2026. | ||
What Is the Revolut Card Reader?
It is a Bluetooth card reader Revolut sold until 2026 and now supports rather than sells. If one is sitting on your counter it works exactly as it did; if you were hoping to order one, you cannot.
It pairs to a phone or tablet running the Revolut Business app. The app handles the sale, routes the payment, and records it against the connected merchant account.
The device is pocket-sized, with a small screen, a contactless zone, and a chip slot, charged over USB-C. We checked the specification against Revolut’s product documentation.
Apple Pay, Google Pay, Visa, and Mastercard all process at 0.8% + 2p in person on UK consumer cards. It does not read American Express.
If you want to accept Amex, the Reader hardware doesn’t support it. Amex cardholders must pay online or on the Terminal or Lite Terminal, both of which take it at 1.7% + 2p.
The paired phone needs Wi-Fi or mobile data for each transaction. The device cannot run standalone.
That matters more now than it did. Every device Revolut still sells runs on its own connection, so a replacement is not a like-for-like swap: you gain independence from your phone and pay at least £129 for it.
Takings are usually ready to pay out from the Revolut Business Merchant account within 24 hours, and you move them into the main balance from there.
You may have read that the first payout is held for seven days. That rule is documented on Revolut’s Pro help pages, the personal-app product; we did not find it on the Business Merchant account the Reader runs on.
Revolut’s Business help page gives that 24 hours without saying whether weekends and bank holidays count towards it, so don’t plan Monday’s supplier run around Saturday’s takings.
We confirmed the withdrawal on Revolut’s own help centre and developer FAQ on 25 August 2026, and re-read the Business settlement page on 26 September 2026.
Fees and Costs
Card Payment Fees
| Card type | In person | Online |
|---|---|---|
| UK consumer Visa / Mastercard | 0.8% + 2p | 1% + 20p |
| Commercial or international | 2.6% + 2p | 2.8% + 20p |
| American Express | Not taken on the Reader | 1.7% + 20p |
| Revolut Pay | Terminal only, 0.5% + 2p | 1% + 20p |
| Pay by Bank | n/a | 1% + 20p, capped at £5 |
| Revolut Business fees page, checked 25 August 2026. The Reader reads Visa, Mastercard and Maestro in person; Amex and Revolut Pay need the Terminal or the online channel. | ||
The headline is 0.8% of the sale plus 2p, and it is the number most write-ups quote. What they leave off is the scope: that rate applies to UK consumer Visa and Mastercard in person. We verified the full table against Revolut’s current fees page.
The catch is the cards it does not cover. A commercial card, or any card issued outside the UK, costs 2.6% + 2p, more than three times the headline. If a chunk of your takings is corporate or overseas, your real blended rate sits well above 0.8%.
On a £40 consumer sale, your card fee is 34p, an effective 0.85%. Fifty of those (£2,000 turnover) costs £17. Swap a few for commercial cards and that figure climbs.
The rate does not change when you move up plans. Whether you’re on Basic, Grow, or Scale, the in-person consumer rate stays 0.8% + 2p on Visa and Mastercard.
This trips buyers up because SumUp, Zettle, and most acquirers reduce processing rates on higher plans.
Higher plans add banking allowances (more free transfers, higher FX limits), not cheaper card acceptance.
We checked the Grow and Scale schedules against Basic and confirmed the flat card rate.
Other rates worth knowing: Revolut Pay is 0.5% + 2p in person and 1% + 20p online; standard online card payments are 1% + 20p; Amex online is 1.7% + 20p.
Amex in person on the Reader is not available at any rate.
If Amex is common in your client base, the Terminal at £169 is the relevant hardware.
Hardware Costs
Hardware is the one part of this review that has actually changed. The Reader cost £49 plus VAT, paid once, and is no longer sold at any price.
You paid for it outright rather than renting it, so nothing has to go back if you close your account, and Revolut cannot take it away.
What replaces it costs more. The Lite Terminal is £129 + VAT and the Terminal £169 + VAT, which moves the cheapest way into Revolut card acceptance up by £80.
We checked both replacements: each is standalone, takes Amex in person at 1.7% + 2p on consumer cards, and needs no paired phone. The Terminal adds full 4G on a SIM as well as the eSIM both carry, and a built-in printer the Lite Terminal leaves out.
For a market trader who was happy pairing a phone, that is a lot of money for capability you were managing without. For a fixed counter, standalone operation and a printer are the things worth paying for.
Receipts on the Reader are digital by default, sent by email or text from the Revolut Business app.
| Reader | Lite Terminal | Terminal | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sold now | No (discontinued) | Yes | Yes |
| Hardware price | £49 + VAT (was) | £129 + VAT | £169 + VAT |
| Phone required | Yes | No | No |
| Standalone cellular | No | eSIM | eSIM + 4G SIM |
| Amex in person | No | Yes | Yes |
| Built-in printer | No | No | Yes |
| Works with Revolut POS | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Revolut in-person device comparison and product pages, checked 25 August 2026. | |||
Monthly Fees and Contract Terms
The Revolut Business plan is required for the Reader to work. Basic is £10/month, flat, and it is the tier almost every Reader buyer will sit on.
Grow and Scale need reading twice. Revolut fronts them as £30 and £90 a month, but those are annual-equivalent rates you only get by paying a year up front.
Billed monthly, Grow is £35 and Scale is £125. The number on the pricing page is the discounted one, and it is the number nearly every comparison site has copied out, us included until we checked the billing terms.
Paying monthly makes both plans dearer than the prices Revolut displays most prominently, because those headline prices assume an annual commitment.
Committing for a year costs £360 on Grow or £1,080 on Scale. That is roughly 14% off Grow and 28% off Scale, which is a real saving if you can stomach paying twelve months in advance.
None of it touches the card rate. Whichever tier you land on, the Reader still charges 0.8% + 2p in person on UK consumer cards.
The free plan was withdrawn in March 2025. New customers must choose a paid plan from signup, and no Reader-only tier exists that skips the banking plan.
If you already use Revolut Business, the plan fee is a sunk cost and the Reader adds nothing monthly.
If you’re opening Revolut purely for the Reader, your first-year total is £49 hardware plus £120 in Basic fees.
That’s £169 before you take a penny over the counter: a different conversation to Square’s £19 with no ongoing commitment.
There is no contract on the hardware. The Reader is bought outright.
Payouts and Settlement Times
Standard Settlement Times
Standard settlement is usually within 24 hours. We re-read Revolut’s Business payout page on 26 September 2026, and the timing is unchanged by the withdrawal.
If you trade Saturday markets, read that 24 hours with care. Revolut’s current Business help page does not say whether weekends and bank holidays count towards it, so don’t count on Saturday’s takings being ready to move before Monday.
One caveat needs the source checked, because it is widely repeated and, for the Reader, wrong. Revolut documents a seven-day wait on the first payout for Revolut Pro, its personal-app product. We could not find the same hold stated for the Business Merchant account the Reader runs on.
So take the widely-repeated seven-day freeze with care. On Business, the developer FAQ states Reader funds take up to 24 hours to clear.
Funds land in the Revolut Business Merchant account, not directly in an external UK bank. You move them into the main balance from there.
If you use a separate bank for payroll or supplier payments, that is an extra step. On Basic, UK local transfers are included up to the plan allowance.
Faster Payout Options
If you’re hoping for instant payouts in the Square or SumUp sense, Revolut isn’t that product.
The speed advantage comes from funds already sitting inside the Revolut Business account after the 24-hour cycle.
If you keep operating cash inside Revolut, that’s effectively instant availability once each payout has landed.
You can spend directly from your Revolut card or account without an external transfer.
If you want funds in your high-street bank account immediately, MyPOS or Square’s paid instant transfer are the products that do that. Revolut is not one of them.
Card Reader Features
Accepted Payment Types
The Reader takes chip & PIN, contactless, Apple Pay, and Google Pay on Visa and Mastercard.
It does not accept American Express in person, and it does not accept Revolut Pay.
Both are supported elsewhere in the Revolut stack: Amex online runs at 1.7% + 20p, and Revolut Pay is available on the Terminal at 0.5% + 2p, or online at 1% + 20p.
This gap matters if you work in premium retail, hospitality with corporate diners, or B2B services where Amex is common.
A customer holding out an Amex at your counter is a sale the Reader cannot take. If that happens often, the Lite Terminal at £129 is the cheapest device that can.
Refunds are processed through the Revolut Business app against the original transaction.
Connectivity and Portability
The Reader is Bluetooth-only. It pairs to the merchant’s phone running the Revolut Business app.
Pairing still works for a Reader you already own. Revolut’s setup page gives the steps: open Merchant, connect a card reader, then confirm the six-digit code. Any device you already have “will continue to work as usual”.
What is closed is new activation. A customer who never owned a Reader can no longer add one to an account.
The paired phone needs Wi-Fi or mobile data for each transaction. Standalone operation is not possible.
If you lose the paired phone or run out of phone battery, the Reader cannot take a payment on its own.
Revolut’s standalone devices are the Lite Terminal (£129 + VAT) and the Terminal (£169 + VAT), both with their own connection and no paired phone needed.
For pop-ups and market stalls, phone dependency is a nuisance you can work around. For a fixed retail counter on a Saturday, a flat phone battery is the till going down.
The card rate is identical across the devices: 0.8% + 2p on UK consumer Visa and Mastercard in person.
Battery Life and Reliability
The Reader charges by USB-C and covers a typical trading day on a single charge.
It is pocket-sized and lightweight for mobile traders.
A charged Reader is not enough on its own. Reliability also depends on the paired phone having power and a usable mobile-data signal when you take the payment.
For high-volume fixed locations, the standalone devices remove the phone as a single point of failure. That is the practical case for the £129, not the spec sheet.
App, Dashboard and Reporting Features
App Features
For a simple card sale, the Revolut Business app is enough: enter the amount, take the payment, send a receipt, issue a refund and check the history in one place. A services business taking only a few cards each week may need nothing more.
The bigger change since this device launched is Revolut POS. An existing Reader connects to it directly, and Revolut publishes the pairing steps. Revolut POS is a proper point-of-sale layer, not a banking app with a payments tab bolted on.
It covers a product catalogue, staff permissions, sales and staff-performance reporting, multiple locations, table service, and printed or digital receipts, with support for named printers and cash drawers. It runs on an iPad, iPhone or Mac.
That corrects something this page used to tell you. Inventory, staff logins and reporting no longer mean leaving Revolut for Square or Zettle. For an existing Reader owner, Revolut POS now covers most of that in-house.
| Capability | In Revolut POS |
|---|---|
| Product catalogue | Yes |
| Staff permissions and logins | Yes |
| Sales and staff reporting | Yes |
| Multiple locations | Yes |
| Table service | Yes |
| Printer support | Star TSP100III, Epson TM-m30III |
| Cash drawer support | SMD2, CD3, CD4 |
| Runs on | iPad, iPhone, Mac |
| Revolut POS help centre and developer documentation, checked 25 August 2026. | |
Reporting and Analytics
Inside the Revolut Business app and web dashboard, you get transaction history, payout history, and basic sales reporting.
Because card takings land in the Revolut Business account, the same bank statement covers both your banking and your card processing.
That simplifies reconciliation compared to a separate acquirer settlement file.
Revolut Business integrates with Xero, QuickBooks, Sage, and FreeAgent for bank feeds.
The quality of feed, VAT treatment of fees, and whether processing fees appear as separate line items vary by integration.
If you are registered for VAT, the thing to establish before your first return is whether the feed lands your takings gross or net of the processing fee. Revolut does not publish that behaviour package by package, and it is the difference between reclaiming the fee and quietly missing it.
For POS-level reporting depth, such as sales by item, sell-through and staff performance, you now get most of it from Revolut POS on a connected Reader, rather than needing a separate third-party till.
Integrations
Revolut Business can take payments online through its Gateway, Payment Links and Merchant API, alongside card payments taken over the counter through the Reader.
The Payment Gateway comes with pre-built Shopify and Magento plugins and a Merchant API for custom checkouts. Read that carefully: the Shopify plugin is an online checkout integration, not a way to drive the Reader from Shopify POS at the counter.
If you want a third-party till to push a sale to Revolut hardware, Revolut documents that only for the Terminal, through a server-to-server payment push. There is no documented route connecting the Reader itself to Shopify POS or Epos Now, so we do not recommend planning one.
Payment Links let you send a shareable link to any customer without needing a website.
Tap to Pay on iPhone turns a supported iPhone into a contactless reader with no hardware at all.
The Merchant API is available on Grow and above, which is where the stack starts to compete seriously with larger acquirers.
If your customers use Revolut, Revolut Pay (the one-click option) is 0.5% + 2p in person, or 1% + 20p online.
Pay by Bank (Open Banking) has been added to the Gateway as a lower-cost alternative to card payments.
Security, Compliance and Chargebacks
Payment Security and PCI Compliance
Revolut is FCA-authorised and provides PCI DSS compliance through the Revolut Business infrastructure.
Revolut Bank UK Ltd launched as a fully authorised UK bank on 11 March 2026, when the PRA lifted the mobilisation restrictions on the licence it had held since July 2024, which brings FSCS protection of up to £120,000 to deposits held with its bank entity.
Don’t assume your takings are covered the moment you sign up. Some businesses that applied during the phased rollout were opened with Revolut Ltd rather than the bank. Revolut says that rollout is complete and that any such account is transitioned to Revolut Bank automatically.
Some accounts may not qualify for transition and can remain with Revolut Ltd as safeguarded e-money, which is not the same as FSCS cover. Check the entity named on your own Business statement before you route a week’s takings through the Reader.
Neither regime spares you the friction of a fund hold, so protection is not the same thing as reaching your money on the day you need it.
We read the current safeguarding and FSCS position on revolut.com/business/legal before writing this section.
We rate the compliance setup as adequate for this type of account because the Reader’s withdrawal does not alter the banking entity, safeguarding or payment-security rules behind it.
Fraud Checks and Account Holds
Revolut runs automated risk checks on new accounts and unusual transaction patterns, as most digital-first business accounts do.
Sudden jumps in average sale value, first large transactions, and higher-risk sector codes can trigger a temporary fund hold.
Revolut’s terms allow these checks, and some public reviews report them affecting new accounts more than established ones.
If you’re an established small business with consistent volumes, you mostly won’t encounter this.
A brand-new account taking an unusually large first sale can be the most exposed to a hold.
Before routing a high-value transaction through a fresh Revolut account, flag it to support in advance. A frozen payment on the day you need the cash is a worse problem than a five-minute chat.
Revolut’s terms permit checks on unusual activity, and access to the money may be delayed while a review is under way.
Chargeback Handling
Chargebacks are managed through the Revolut Business dashboard under the standard disputes process.
Because card takings and banking sit in the same account, chargeback documentation and account history are in one place.
We compared the dispute tooling against Stripe’s and Revolut’s is the thinner of the two for high-volume online merchants.
For in-person Reader transactions, the standard chargeback process is the same as any card acquirer.
Keep transaction records and customer documentation within the Revolut Business app where possible.
Who the Revolut Card Reader Is Best For
Best Business Types
Keep it if you are a limited company or LLP already running Revolut Business, because the Reader is now costing you nothing at all. The hardware is paid for and the plan fee was already on your books.
It keeps payments, banking, FX, and expenses on one statement, which is the thing that made it worth buying and the thing the withdrawal has not touched.
An international micro-firm, a sole consultant through a limited company, or an e-commerce brand with a physical channel all still get full value from it.
Higher-volume in-person businesses (£5,000–£20,000/month in card takings) get the most, because 0.8% + 2p on consumer cards compounds in their favour on every trading day.
If you trade as a UK sole trader, Revolut’s own eligibility information is inconsistent, so we won’t give you a flat yes or no.
Its Help Centre lists sole traders as unsupported, while its Business Terms, effective 28 April 2026, include “new sole traders”. Check what the sign-up flow shows for your own situation before relying on either page.
Revolut Pro is where Revolut points unincorporated individuals: a separate account inside the personal app, with no subscription fee. Its help centre confirms it no longer sells Readers either, so Pro is not a back door to one.
Best Sales Environments
Mobile traders, consultants, and service businesses taking a few cards a week lose nothing by staying on the Bluetooth Reader.
The simple app suits businesses that only need to enter an amount, take payment and send a receipt. Inventory management and staff permissions sit in Revolut POS instead.
A hospitality venue with corporate diners is the awkward case. The Reader cannot take Amex in person and never will, so every Amex at the table is a card you have to turn away or route online.
For fixed retail or café counters, the gap is connectivity rather than cards. The Reader needs your phone alive and online; the £129 Lite Terminal does not.
When to Consider Alternatives
The live question for an owner is no longer which reader to buy. It is whether the £10-a-month Revolut Business plan under your Reader still costs you less than it saves.
Take £1,000/month in cards at a £40 average sale and Revolut costs £18.50: £8 on the rate, 50p in 2p fees, £10 for Basic. Square costs £17.50 and charges no monthly fee.
So Square is about a pound cheaper at that level, and the two cross over around £1,111 a month, not the £2,000 repeated across the comparison sites.
That maths only holds if you keep Revolut Business solely to run the Reader. If you would pay for Revolut Business anyway, the account fee is not an extra cost of using the Reader. But Revolut’s 0.8% + 2p rate for UK consumer Visa and Mastercard payments does not beat Square’s 1.75% on every transaction: the fixed 2p can make very small payments more expensive. Compare the fees using your typical payment size and card mix.
It also assumes every sale is a qualifying UK consumer card. A commercial or international mix, charged at 2.6% + 2p, pushes the sums back towards Square.
Run your own average sale value and card mix through both rates before you move, because a low average sale drags the 2p component up and pushes the crossover higher.
One caution on the maths. That calculation assumes you keep a working Reader; the moment you are buying hardware again, Revolut starts at £129 and Square at £19, and the crossover moves a long way up.
Customer Support and Reviews
Support Channels
A Reader that develops a fault inside its first year is still covered. Revolut’s help centre sets out two routes: a Terminal at a discount, or a refund matching what you paid for the Reader.
The refund route is the one to read carefully. It matches the Reader’s cost, not the price of what replaces it, so on a £49 device against a £129 Lite Terminal you are still £80 out of pocket.
Outside the warranty year there is no replacement to buy at all, and Revolut has no obligation to offer you one. A dead Reader in month thirteen means choosing a new device that day.
That is the practical reason to think about this before it happens rather than on a Saturday with a queue at the counter.
We read the warranty terms on Revolut’s own help centre on 4 August 2026.
Revolut’s support model is chat-led. There is no dedicated phone line for Revolut Business accounts.
Getting to a human agent via in-app chat can take longer than a traditional bank’s phone line.
Compliance hold queries are handled by email, not chat, a slower route when it matters most.
If you run a weekend market stall and your reader stops working on a Saturday afternoon, that is a real operational consideration, and it is a sharper one now that no spare device can be ordered.
Customer Review Themes
In public Revolut Business reviews, we found praise for the 0.8% + 2p rate on UK consumer Visa and Mastercard payments and the convenience of keeping payments in one account.
Multi-currency capabilities and FX savings feature in reviews from businesses with international clients.
The 24-hour settlement is cited positively compared to older acquirer products.
We read the review landscape as broadly positive among existing Revolut Business users who already have a Reader running.
Common Complaints
Payout timing draws complaints, and the detail matters. The seven-day first-payout hold people describe is a Revolut Pro rule; some reviewers conflate the personal-app product with the Business account. On a Business Merchant account, settlement is up to 24 hours.
Revolut’s terms allow additional checks during compliance reviews, which can delay access for some accounts. New accounts and unusual transaction profiles look the most exposed.
In-app chat support draws complaints in some reviews, particularly for time-sensitive problems.
A second theme is the expectation that upgrading plans would reduce the card rate. It doesn’t, and Revolut has never made that especially clear at the point of upgrade.
Revolut Card Reader Alternatives
Replacing a Reader splits two ways: stay inside Revolut and pay more for hardware, or leave and give up the 0.8% + 2p consumer rate.
Staying means the Lite Terminal at £129 + VAT, which is now Revolut’s cheapest in-person device, or the Terminal at £169 + VAT if you want a printer. Both keep your rate and both take Amex.
Leaving is the better answer more often than it used to be, because the £49 that made Revolut cheap to join no longer exists. The three options below each solve a different Revolut limitation.
Revolut vs Square Reader
Square charges 1.75% flat in person with no monthly fee and £19 hardware, and it is the option that has gained most from the Reader coming off sale.
Below roughly £1,100/month in cards, Square is the cheaper option overall once the Revolut Basic plan fee is counted.
Square accepts sole traders directly. Revolut’s own guidance on sole traders is inconsistent: its Business Terms (28 April 2026) include “new sole traders”, while its Help Centre still lists them as unsupported.
Above £1,100/month, Revolut’s 0.8% + 2p on consumer cards pulls ahead and keeps pulling. That crossover only holds while your Reader keeps working, though: put £129 of Lite Terminal against Square’s £19 and it moves sharply in Square’s favour.
Revolut vs myPOS Go 2
MyPOS Go 2 operates without a paired phone, using a built-in SIM for connectivity.
Funds land in a MyPOS wallet instantly rather than waiting for Revolut’s up-to-24-hour settlement.
The trade-off is holding cash in a MyPOS wallet and paying a fee to transfer it to a UK bank.
MyPOS is the one to look at if you cannot rely on phone battery or signal in the field and do not want to pay Revolut’s £129 for the same independence.
Revolut vs Tide Card Reader
Tide Card Reader pays directly into a Tide business account, the same account used for invoicing and expenses.
A Tide business account is a prerequisite, just as Revolut Business is required for the Revolut Reader.
For businesses already banking with Tide, the Tide reader removes the need to open a second provider account.
Choose Tide if you already bank there and want card takings beside its invoicing and expenses. Keep Revolut if your Reader still works and its banking and foreign-currency tools already carry the rest of your workflow.
If you are replacing rather than keeping, our cheapest card machines comparison ranks every current UK device by total first-year cost, and the best card machines roundup covers reliability and features.
Final Verdict: Is the Revolut Card Reader Worth It?
Keep it, and do not rush to replace it. A withdrawn product with a live rate is still an asset, and this one is charging you 0.8% + 2p on your consumer-card sales, on hardware that is already paid for.
Nothing about that changes until the device fails. When it does, you are choosing between £129 for a Lite Terminal and £19 for a Square Reader, and that is a genuinely different question to the one this page used to answer.
For anyone who arrived intending to buy, you are too late, and the replacement is worse value at the entry level. We priced both: Revolut’s cheapest in-person device now costs about two and a half times what the Reader did, £129 against £49.
The old limits are still the limits: no Amex on Reader hardware, a commercial-and-international card rate of 2.6% + 2p that sits well above the 0.8% headline, and support that runs through in-app chat when a dead terminal on a Saturday needs a phone line.
And the pricing pages remain a mess. Grow and Scale are advertised at £30 and £90 when the monthly-billed prices are £35 and £125, and the card-machine page was still selling a £49 Reader on the day we checked.
Revolut’s card-machine marketing and help-centre pages do not agree on whether the Reader is still for sale, as our direct comparison of the two showed. That is reason enough to treat a hardware price on the marketing page with caution.
None of this is a reason to move a working Reader off your counter. It is a reason to have decided what replaces it before the morning it stops.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you still buy a Revolut Reader?
No. Revolut withdrew the Reader from sale in 2026. Its Business help centre states the Reader “is no longer available for purchase” and its Pro help centre that “we no longer sell Revolut Readers”. New customers cannot order one or pair one to an account. Revolut’s cheapest current in-person device is the Lite Terminal at £129 + VAT.
Does my Revolut Reader still work?
Yes. Devices already bought keep working and keep the same 0.8% + 2p in-person consumer-card rate and 24-hour settlement. Revolut has stopped selling the Reader, not switched it off. There is no announced end-of-support date, so the practical limit is the life of the hardware.
What happens if my Revolut Reader breaks?
Inside the one-year warranty, Revolut offers either a Terminal at a discount or a refund matching what the Reader cost you. The refund tracks the Reader’s price rather than the replacement’s, so against a £129 Lite Terminal you would still be paying the difference. Outside the warranty year there is no Reader to replace it with, and you choose a new device at full price.
What has replaced the Revolut Reader?
The Lite Terminal at £129 + VAT is Revolut’s cheapest current in-person device, and the Terminal is £169 + VAT. Both run standalone without a paired phone and both accept American Express in person at 1.7% + 2p, which the Reader never did. The in-person rate on Visa and Mastercard stays at 0.8% + 2p.
What is the Revolut Reader transaction fee?
The in-person rate is 0.8% + 2p on UK consumer Visa and Mastercard, the same across all paid Revolut Business plans: Basic (£10/month), Grow (£35/month billed monthly, £30 if you pay annually), and Scale (£125/month billed monthly, £90 annually). Upgrading plan does not reduce it.
Does the 0.8% rate apply to every card?
No. 0.8% + 2p is the in-person rate for UK consumer Visa and Mastercard only. Commercial cards, and any card issued outside the UK, cost 2.6% + 2p in person. The Reader does not accept American Express. If a real share of your takings is corporate or overseas, your blended rate sits well above the 0.8% headline.
Can a Revolut Reader connect to Revolut POS?
Yes. A Reader you already own connects to Revolut POS, and Revolut publishes the pairing steps. Revolut POS adds a product catalogue, staff permissions, sales and staff reporting, multiple locations, table service, and printer and cash-drawer support. The documented third-party POS integration (a server-to-server payment push) is for the Revolut Terminal, not the Reader.
Do I need a Revolut Business account?
Yes. You need a Revolut Business plan to use the Reader. The free plan was discontinued in March 2025. The minimum is Basic at £10/month. No Reader-only tier exists that skips the banking plan.
Does Revolut Reader accept American Express?
No. The Reader hardware does not accept Amex in person at any rate. The Lite Terminal (£129 + VAT) and the Terminal (£169 + VAT) both accept Amex in person at 1.7% + 2p. Online Amex is accepted at 1.7% + 20p.
How long does a Revolut Reader payout take?
On a Revolut Business Merchant account, takings are usually ready to pay out within 24 hours, and you then move them into your Business account. The seven-day first-payout hold that is often quoted is a Revolut Pro rule, the personal-app product; we could not find it documented for the Business account the Reader uses.
What is the difference between Revolut Reader and Revolut Terminal?
The Reader is Bluetooth-only, requires a paired phone, does not accept Amex in person, and is no longer sold. The Terminal (£169 + VAT) is standalone with built-in 4G eSIM, accepts Amex in person, and has a built-in printer; the Lite Terminal (£129 + VAT) is the cheaper standalone option without the printer. The card rate is 0.8% + 2p on UK consumer Visa and Mastercard across all three.
Can sole traders use Revolut Reader?
No, and the entity question is beside the point now. Revolut no longer sells Revolut Readers at all, which its own help centre states. Whether a sole trader could open the Revolut Business account behind one is itself unresolved: the Help Centre lists “Freelancer or soletrader” under unsupported business types, while the Revolut Bank UK Business Terms, effective 28 April 2026, include “new sole traders”. We read both directly and found no definitive answer. Revolut Pro, a separate account in the personal Revolut app with no subscription fee, is not a route to a Reader either. For a sole trader who wants in-person card acceptance today, Square accepts sole traders directly at £19 of hardware and 1.75% flat.
How we reviewed Revolut
What we assessed. We evaluated the Reader on hardware availability, the in-person and online rates, warranty terms, settlement timing, plan eligibility, and what Revolut now sells in its place. Since the device came off sale, availability and warranty carry the most weight for the people still reading this.
Data sources. We read Revolut’s Business and Pro help centres, its developer documentation and Reader FAQ, its Revolut POS pages, its pricing and plan-terms pages, and its card-machine marketing page directly. Availability, fees by card type, settlement, pairing and POS compatibility were re-verified on 25 August 2026.
We used no comparison sites, press releases or affiliate material, and cross-checked the FCA register for regulatory status.
Where the sources disagreed. Revolut’s marketing page and help centre contradict each other on whether the Reader is still sold, and its Help Centre and Business Terms contradict each other on sole-trader eligibility. We record each conflict rather than pick the convenient answer.
We also separate Revolut Business rules from Revolut Pro rules. The widely-quoted seven-day first payout is a Pro rule and does not apply to the Business account the Reader uses.
Update cadence. We re-verify this page regularly, and whenever a provider changes pricing, eligibility, or terms. The verification date on the page reflects the most recent full review. Some links on this page are affiliate links, see our editorial policy.