Which way to take cards depends on where you sell. At a counter or on the move, a card reader from £19 or Tap to Pay on your own phone, which needs no hardware at all, costs about 1.69% to 1.75% a tap. Online sales go through a payment gateway or a payment link at roughly 1.4% to 1.5% + 20p. Phone orders cost more, near 2.5%, because the card is not present.
Square, SumUp, Zettle and Stripe charge one flat rate and are known as aggregators. They approve you in minutes, so you can be taking payments the same day, and their basic plans have no monthly fee. A traditional acquirer such as Worldpay or Barclaycard takes one to two weeks to approve you, and usually works out cheaper only once you pass roughly £30,000 to £50,000 a month in card sales.
Taking Card Payments at a Glance
Most businesses fit one row. A business that sells in a shop and on a website can use the bottom row and keep one provider and one payout.
| Where you sell | Best method | Typical 2026 cost | What you need |
|---|---|---|---|
| Fixed shop counter | Countertop or smart terminal | ~1.5% to 1.75% per tap; terminal £149 or £15 to £30/mo | Terminal, business account |
| Market stall, mobile, pop-up | Mobile reader or Tap to Pay | ~1.69% to 1.75% per tap; reader from £19 | Smartphone (reader optional) |
| Online store | Payment gateway or plugin | ~1.4% to 1.5% + 20p per sale | Website, gateway account |
| Over the phone | Virtual terminal (MOTO) | ~2.5% per transaction | Browser, MOTO-enabled account |
| Subscriptions, recurring | Recurring card or Direct Debit | Card ~1.5%; Direct Debit ~1% + 20p | Billing platform |
| In person and online | One provider across channels | Blended ~1.5% to 1.75% | Account covering both |
| Verified October 2026. | |||
We pick Square to start with: the reader is £19, there is no monthly fee and payouts arrive the next working day. A busy shop should not stay on flat-rate for ever, though, because interchange-plus usually wins past roughly £30,000 to £50,000 a month. Our payment processing hub compares the shortlist for each way of selling.
The Main Ways to Take Card Payments
Where the customer is when they pay decides the method: in person, online or by phone, with recurring billing for customers you charge on a schedule.
In-Person Card Payments
Selling face to face gives you three routes: a mobile reader, a countertop or smart terminal, or Tap to Pay on your phone. The simplest is a mobile reader like the Square Reader, SumUp Solo Lite, or the Zettle Reader.
A reader pairs with your phone over Bluetooth and starts from £19. Once it arrives and is paired, it takes taps, which makes it the quickest hardware route for a sole trader.
A countertop or smart terminal suits a fixed till. It runs its own screen and connects over Wi-Fi or a SIM, and it links to your EPOS (till system) so the day’s takings reconcile themselves instead of by hand.
Tap to Pay needs no hardware at all. Your NFC phone becomes the reader, so a sole trader can accept contactless with £0 spent on kit.
Online Card Payments
An online shop needs a payment gateway, the checkout that captures and encrypts the card. Stripe and PayPal are the common picks, and both settle the money too.
For most small shops, a hosted checkout is the right choice. The customer pays on the provider’s secure page, so card data stays off your servers and your compliance stays at the simplest level.
If you run Shopify, WooCommerce, or Wix, a plugin wires it up in minutes. Payment links need no website: you generate a link and send it by email, SMS, or WhatsApp.
Phone Card Payments (MOTO)
Mail Order and Telephone Order (MOTO) lets you key a card in yourself while the customer reads it out. You do it through a virtual terminal, a secure web page from your provider.
MOTO costs more, near 2.5%, because with no card present the fraud risk is higher. It suits a physio taking deposits by phone or a wholesaler taking payment on trade invoices.
Recurring Card Payments
If you bill the same customer on a schedule, automate it. Recurring card billing stores the card and charges it each cycle, which suits memberships, subscription boxes, and software subscriptions.
Direct Debit is the alternative to a stored card. It pulls from the bank account instead of the card, so a gym billing members monthly pays around 1% + 20p and loses fewer payments to expired cards.
How Much It Costs to Take Card Payments
The per-transaction fee drives the bill, with hardware and any monthly charge added on top. Work out which fee model suits your volume before you sign anything.
| Provider | In-person | Online | Hardware | Monthly |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square | 1.75% | 1.4% + 25p | Reader £19, Terminal £149 | £0 |
| SumUp | 1.69% | 2.5% | Solo Lite £25, Solo £79 | £0 (or £19 plan) |
| Zettle | 1.75% | 2.5% | Reader £29, Terminal £149 | £0 |
| Stripe | n/a | 1.5% + 20p | None | £0 |
| Worldpay / Barclaycard | 1.5% (Worldpay flat tariff); Barclaycard quotes per business | 1.3% to 1.5% + 20p (Worldpay) | Rented £16 to £29/mo + VAT | Rental; other charges may apply |
| Verified October 2026. | ||||
Flat-rate pricing charges one percentage on every sale, so it suits low and middle volumes: you always know what a sale costs.
Interchange-plus splits the fee into the bank’s cut, the scheme’s cut, and the processor’s markup. When a customer pays on a cheap debit card, that saving reaches you instead of vanishing into a blended rate.
The switching point is roughly £30,000 to £50,000 a month. Below it, flat-rate aggregators win on price and simplicity; above it, interchange-plus usually beats them even after terminal rental. At £40,000 a month, 1.75% costs £700 in fees, while a negotiated 0.8% plus £30 rental costs £350.
What You Need to Get Started
In person, you need a smartphone and a reader, or just an NFC phone for Tap to Pay. Online, you need a website or a payment-link account. Hardware is often optional.
You need a business bank account to receive payouts. If you trade under a registered name, aggregators and acquirers won’t settle into a personal account, so open the business account before you apply.
Providers run a quick identity and business check, known as KYC, when you apply. Have your photo ID, business bank details, and Companies House number ready. A sole trader needs less, but still needs a genuine business account to get paid.
Not every provider accepts sole traders or businesses in flagged sectors. Settle that before you build a checkout around one.
How to Set Up Card Payments Step by Step
Most people finish setup inside a week, and an aggregator can have you live the same day.
1. Pick your method. Map it to where you sell: counter, online, phone, or a mix. A wrong choice here means paying for kit you never use.
2. Choose a provider. Match your monthly volume to the fee model. Under £30,000 a month, start with a flat-rate aggregator. Above it, get interchange-plus quotes from an acquirer.
3. Apply and pass KYC. Upload ID, business bank details, and your company number. Aggregators approve in minutes; a traditional acquirer underwrites over one to two weeks.
4. Set up the kit or the checkout. Hardware ships in one to three days. Online, you drop in a plugin or paste your API keys, then connect your accounting feed so reconciliation isn’t manual.
5. Test before you go live. Push a real £1 sale through every channel you’ll use, and confirm it appears and settles.
6. Watch the first payout. Square settles next working day; Stripe usually takes about three. Some providers hold your first payout a few days while they verify you. Plan that short gap into your cash flow.
Card Payment Rules and Compliance
A mainstream provider carries most of the compliance load for a small merchant, so you don’t need security expertise to take cards.
PCI DSS is the card-data security standard. Almost every UK small business sits at the lowest tier and proves it with a short annual Self-Assessment Questionnaire (SAQ). A hosted checkout or a standalone terminal keeps that questionnaire short.
Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) is the rule behind those approve-in-your-app prompts. Your gateway runs it through 3D Secure 2 when a customer pays online, so you don’t build it; the provider enforces it.
Under UK GDPR, never store a card number in plain text, on paper, or in a spreadsheet. Let the processor tokenise it, and use only a provider that is FCA-authorised.
How to Choose a Card Payment Provider
We put monthly volume first, because it decides whether flat-rate or interchange-plus is cheaper for you. Settlement speed is next, because next-day money beats a three-day hold when you’re restocking on tight cash flow. Contract length follows: aggregators are rolling or contract-free, while acquirers often want twelve to eighteen months.
After those come fit and integration. An in-person business needs hardware that links to its till system (EPOS); an online one needs a gateway with a plugin for its shop platform. Without an accounting integration, you reconcile by hand every month-end.
Once you’ve settled on a method, compare the shortlist on the payment processing hub rather than relying on one provider’s sales pitch.
Common Mistakes to Avoid
Five traps that cost UK merchants money
All five come down to contracts, pricing or accounts rather than technology, and each is avoidable.
- Skipping the auto-renewal clause. Sign an acquirer contract, miss the 30-day notice window, and you’re locked in for another full term.
- Staying flat-rate as you scale. Past roughly £50,000 a month, interchange-plus is usually cheaper even with terminal rental.
- Ignoring settlement times. A three-day hold can throttle your cash flow if you restock fast.
- Paying for features you never use. EPOS bundles and premium plans bought for a single report add up.
- Using a personal account. If you trade under a registered name, providers won’t pay out to it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I take card payments without a card machine?
Yes. Tap to Pay turns an NFC smartphone into a contactless reader with no hardware at all. Online, payment links and hosted checkouts take cards without a machine. Over the phone, a virtual terminal does the same from your browser.
How quickly do I get paid?
Square settles next working day as standard, while Stripe typically takes about three business days for UK accounts. Some hold your first payout a few extra days while they verify you, so plan that gap into your cash flow.
Do I need a business bank account to take card payments?
In practice, yes. If you trade under a registered business name, providers won’t settle payouts into a personal account. Sole traders have a little more leeway, but a dedicated business account keeps payouts and bookkeeping clean.
What is the cheapest way for a small business to take cards?
For low volume, a flat-rate aggregator wins: no monthly fee, a reader from £19, or £0 with Tap to Pay. Once you pass roughly £30,000 to £50,000 a month, an interchange-plus contract usually works out cheaper.
Do I have to handle PCI compliance myself?
Mostly no. With a hosted checkout, a standalone terminal, or Tap to Pay, your provider carries the bulk of PCI DSS. You complete a short annual questionnaire and never store raw card numbers yourself.
Are online card fees higher than in-person fees?
Usually, slightly. In-person taps run around 1.69% to 1.75% flat. Online sales tend to add a fixed pence charge per transaction, near 1.4% to 1.5% + 20p. Phone (MOTO) payments are the priciest, around 2.5%, because fraud risk is higher.
How we created this guide
Sources. We reviewed published 2026 pricing from Square, SumUp, Zettle, Stripe, Worldpay, and Barclaycard, alongside the FCA on Strong Customer Authentication, UK Finance, and the PCI Security Standards Council.
How we compared. We put those published rates side by side for the same three kinds of payment, an in-person tap, an online checkout and a phone payment, because that is where the fees split. They’re typical 2026 UK ranges and move with your card mix, so your own rate can land above or below them.
Verification date. Pricing and rules were checked in October 2026. Contactless limits, SCA exemptions, and fee structures change, so treat the figures as a starting point, not a quote.
Affiliate disclosure. Some links on our payment processing pages are affiliate links, which may earn us a commission at no cost to you. Our recommendations aren’t influenced by those relationships. See our editorial policy for full details.