There is no single best card payment machine, because the answer flips on how much a business takes. Below a couple of thousand pounds a month the plans with no monthly fee win on arithmetic; above it the subscription plans with a lower percentage overtake them. What can be said flatly is which providers let a buyer do that arithmetic at all, and which require a sales call before they will name a number.
Best card payment machine for small business uk: the ranking, and the criterion
- Lopay: prints the lowest published in-person rate in this index, 0.79% on its Essential account for UK consumer Visa and Mastercard, with no monthly fee on that tier
- myPOS: prints 1.10% plus 7p with zero fixed monthly costs under 10,000 pounds monthly card turnover, and a full fee schedule beside it rather than a headline alone
- Tide: publishes both columns of the trade off in one table, 17.99 pounds a month for 0.89% plus 3p against zero a month for 1.5% plus 11p, so the crossover point can be worked out
- Tyl by NatWest: the only bank owned acquirer here that prints a rate for smaller businesses, 1.39% plus 5p on personal cards below 50,000 pounds annual card turnover, and says plainly that above it the price becomes bespoke
Work out your own crossover before you shortlist
Take last year's card turnover, divide by twelve, and multiply by each published rate. Add the monthly fee. The plan that wins at 1,500 pounds a month is rarely the plan that wins at 15,000. Tide's own table makes this explicit: the subscription buys a rate roughly 0.6 percentage points lower, which is worth about 9 pounds a month at 1,500 pounds of takings and about 90 pounds at 15,000.
A published rate is worth more than a promised one
Handepay's own article titled with the buyer's question answers it with a floor and a ceiling: a machine for less than 20 pounds a month, and fees as low as 0.01%. Neither is a price offered to anyone in particular. Barclaycard prints an introductory zero pound monthly service fee for twelve months and then 18 pounds plus VAT, and no transaction rate at all. Treat a range as a marketing device rather than a quote.
What small businesses actually get charged extra for
The headline rate covers a UK consumer debit or credit card presented at the counter. Commercial cards, American Express and non UK cards are usually surcharged: myPOS prints 2.20% plus 7p for EEA consumer cards and 2.45% plus 7p for American Express, and Lopay adds 1% for each of American Express, international and corporate cards. A shop whose customers travel will not pay the headline number.
Questions people ask about best card payment machine for small business uk
Is a free card machine ever really free?
The hardware can be, but the account behind it is not. Providers that give the reader away recover it in the transaction rate or a monthly service fee, and the contract that carries it is usually the longer one. Compare the total of rate plus monthly fee over three years rather than the price on the box.
Which providers will not quote a price online?
takepayments, UTP Group, Nexi and Global Payments were each read in full and print no figure. Paymentsense now asks for twelve month card turnover, average transaction value and merchant category before it shows anything. Dojo refuses automated reading altogether.
Does the best machine depend on my card mix?
Yes. If a meaningful share of your takings is American Express, commercial cards or overseas cards, the surcharges matter more than the headline. Adyen publishes interchange plus pricing precisely because a blended rate hides that mix, and for a business with unusual card traffic that can be the cheaper structure.