Retail and Hospitality Payments at a Glance
A card reader, terminal or EPOS till lets a UK shop, cafe or restaurant take payment in person. We’d match the hardware to how you trade, not just chase the lowest headline rate.
| Setup | Best for | Typical cost | Settlement |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mobile reader | Low volume, pop-ups, market stalls | ~1.69%–1.75%; reader £19–£29 | Next day |
| Tap to Pay on phone | Agile retail, delivery, queue-busting | Same rate; no hardware cost | Next day |
| Countertop / portable terminal | Busy shops and pay-at-table | ~1.4%–1.6% + pence; rental £12.50–£30/mo | Next/same day |
| Integrated EPOS | High volume, stock and table management | Quoted acquirer rate + software | Next/same day |
Flat-rate readers suit low volume; quoted acquirer contracts and integrated EPOS suit busy sites. The right setup matches how you trade, not the lowest headline rate. Figures verified May 2026.
How Retail and Hospitality Payments Differ
Retail and hospitality look similar at the till but pull payments in different directions. We’d start from how you actually serve customers, because that decides the hardware more than price does.
Retail wants speed at a fixed counter: a countertop terminal wired to an EPOS till, barcode scanning, live stock deduction and quick contactless to keep queues moving.
Hospitality needs mobility — portable pay-at-table terminals for restaurants and pubs, plus bill-splitting and table management built into the EPOS rather than bolted on.
Hospitality also carries a duty retail rarely meets. Since 1 October 2024 the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act requires 100% of tips and service charges to reach staff, with no deductions.
How In-Person Card Payments Work
Every in-person sale runs the same loop: the customer taps, inserts or scans a wallet, the card is authorised in seconds, and the money settles to your account the next working day.
Contactless historically capped a single tap at £100. From March 2026 the FCA removed that mandatory ceiling, though most high-street banks still keep £100 as the practical default for now.
A PIN is still prompted after roughly five contactless taps or about £300 of cumulative spend. Digital wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay authenticate with biometrics, so they bypass that cap.
Mobile wallets count as fully authenticated, which also shifts fraud liability. Process the chip or contactless method correctly and the issuer carries counterfeit-fraud losses, not you.
Main Types of Payment Hardware
Hardware is where retail and hospitality split hardest. We’d pick the form factor first — fixed, portable or phone-based — then match a provider and contract to it.
| Hardware | How it is used | Watch for |
|---|---|---|
| Mobile card reader | Bluetooth reader paired to a phone or tablet | Cheap entry; needs a charged device |
| Tap to Pay on phone | Phone’s own NFC chip reads the card | No hardware cost; drains battery |
| Countertop terminal | Fixed unit at a till, often EPOS-linked | Best for fast retail queues |
| Portable / pay-at-table | 4G/Wi-Fi handheld taken to the table | Essential for restaurants and pubs |
| Integrated EPOS | Till, stock, tips and payments in one | Software fee; check integrations |
What Retail and Hospitality Payments Cost
Here’s what the main UK providers charged for in-person card payments in May 2026. Watch the terminal price and any minimum monthly service charge, not just the headline percentage.
| Provider | In-person rate | Hardware / monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Square | 1.75% flat | Reader £19+VAT; £0/mo |
| SumUp | 1.69% (0.99% on £19/mo Plus) | Readers £25–£135+VAT; £0/mo PAYG |
| Zettle by PayPal | 1.75% flat | Reader 2 £29+VAT; £0/mo |
| Tyl by NatWest | 1.39% + 5p | Rental £13.99–£19.99+VAT/mo; no MMSC |
| Barclaycard | 1.6% (Anywhere) | Reader £29+VAT; contract plans £20 MMSC |
| Worldpay | 1.5% + 5p (Simplicity) | Rental £15–£30+VAT/mo; £15 MMSC |
| Dojo | Fix £39.99/mo to £3,999, then 1% | Dojo Go £79–£109 or rent £15/mo |
| Stripe Terminal | 1.4% + 10p (EEA) | Readers £49–£229+VAT; needs integration |
Bespoke acquirers like takepayments and Barclaycard contract plans quote on your volume, typically adding a £15–£20 minimum monthly charge and a ~£4.80 PCI fee. Flat-rate providers fold those in.
How to Choose a Payments Setup
The cheapest setup depends on your volume, format and how mobile you need to be — not the headline rate. We’d work through these five steps before signing anything.
Security and Fraud Risks
Face-to-face card payments are lower-risk than online, but the obligations are real. Get the security basics wrong and the cost lands on you, not the bank.
PCI DSS v4.0.1 has been mandatory since 31 March 2025. You must secure terminals, block tampering and protect card data; acquirers charge ongoing non-compliance fees until you attest.
Terminal tampering and skimming are the main physical threats. Keep devices in sight, check for overlays, and use only provider-supplied, updated hardware.
The EMV liability shift decides who pays for counterfeit fraud. Process a chip card properly and the issuer carries the loss; fall back to magstripe and it becomes yours.
Chargebacks are rarer in person but still cost the sale plus a £15–£20 admin fee, win or lose. Sound EMV and PCI practice is the only reliable shield against them.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
The expensive mistakes here are about contracts and fit, not effort. These five quietly inflate your costs or your compliance risk — and each one is avoidable.
Five mistakes that cost retail and hospitality
- Judging on the headline rate. A low percentage plus a £20 minimum monthly charge, terminal rental and £4.80 PCI fee can cost more than a flat 1.75% reader at modest volume.
- Ignoring rental lock-ins and exit fees. Acquirers often tie you to 12–36 month hardware leases with aggressive early-termination penalties; flat-rate is rolling or buy-outright.
- Mismatching countertop and mobile. A fixed terminal cripples table service; over-specified kit wastes money on a simple coffee cart. Match the device to how you trade.
- EPOS integration gaps. A terminal that won’t talk to your till, stock or accounting forces manual double-entry and reconciliation errors at cash-up.
- Underestimating tipping and tronc. Since the 2024 Tipping Act, kit that can’t separate gratuities or feed compliant tronc software exposes you to staff claims and NI penalties.
When to Compare Payment Providers
You don’t need to switch on a schedule. We’d watch for the moment the numbers change, then compare on your own statement rather than a headline rate.
Compare when volume grows enough that a quoted acquirer beats flat-rate, when a terminal rental comes up for renewal, or when you add sites, covers or an online sales channel.
Rising chargebacks or a Saturday-night terminal failure are signals too — a weak support SLA costs more than a slightly higher rate. Our payment-processing roundups help you shortlist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need an EPOS till, or is a card reader enough?
It depends on volume and complexity. A standalone mobile reader or countertop terminal is plenty for a market stall, a small shop or a takeaway that just needs to take cards. An integrated EPOS earns its software fee once you need live stock control, barcode scanning, table management or compliant tipping — which most busy shops and full-service restaurants do.
What is the difference between a mobile reader and a countertop terminal?
A mobile reader is a small Bluetooth device that pairs with your phone or tablet and is cheap to buy outright — ideal for low volume and pop-ups. A countertop terminal is a fixed, mains- or dock-powered unit, usually wired into an EPOS till, built for fast, high-throughput retail queues. Portable terminals sit between the two for pay-at-table hospitality.
How does tipping work on a card machine now?
Since the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act came into force on 1 October 2024, all tips and service charges must reach staff in full, with no deductions — including card-processing fees. The card machine must be able to prompt for a tip, isolate service charges from sales revenue, and feed a compliant tronc system. Tips must be paid out by the end of the following month.
How fast will I get my money?
Next working day is the 2026 industry standard — Square, SumUp (by 7am), Dojo, takepayments, Worldpay and Barclaycard all settle next-day as a baseline. Tyl by NatWest offers same-day settlement for NatWest, RBS and Ulster account holders. Zettle to a non-PayPal bank takes one to two days, and Stripe standard payouts run two to seven days unless you pay 1% for instant.
Do I need PCI compliance for a small shop?
Yes. Every business that takes card payments must meet PCI DSS, which moved to v4.0.1 as the mandatory standard on 31 March 2025. For a small shop using a modern provider terminal, compliance is mostly handled for you — you complete an annual self-assessment and keep firmware updated. Ignore it and acquirers levy monthly non-compliance fees, with far larger fines if a breach occurs.
How We Researched This Guide
How we researched this guide
Sources. Pricing comes from provider pricing and review pages; the security rules from the PCI Security Standards Council; contactless and authentication detail from the FCA; tipping law from the Employment (Allocation of Tips) Act 2024.
Open and forward-looking items. Provider rates and contracts change often, and the FCA’s March 2026 contactless reform is still bedding in, so we present each figure as accurate at our verification date and name the provider or regulator beside it.
Verification date. Rates, fees and rules were verified in May 2026. Where a provider’s exact contract term couldn’t be confirmed from a primary source, we left it out rather than guessed. Confirm current figures before you act.
Affiliate disclosure. Some links on our payment processing pages are affiliate links. This guide is editorial content and our recommendations are not influenced by commercial relationships. See our editorial policy for details.