Card machine for small business: portable units on printed rates

What providers print for this type

How to pick one

1. Decide how it connects. A portable terminal reaches the acquirer over wifi, over a mobile network, or over a base station. Wifi is free and stops at the edge of the building; mobile keeps working in a car park and usually carries a SIM cost, printed or not.
2. Check the battery against a real shift. Battery life is quoted in transactions or in hours on a fresh unit. A busy service is the test, and a terminal that needs a mid-shift charge needs a second terminal.
3. Ask whether the printer is needed. A printed receipt is still expected in hospitality and rarely elsewhere. Printerless units are lighter, cheaper and quicker to charge; the decision is about your customers, not about the technology.
4. Compare on rate AND rental, as with a countertop. Portable terminals are sold both ways on this shelf. The printed rates here are the pay-as-you-go ones; the rented ones are quoted, which is exactly what the two recorded absences in this index mean.
5. Check the tipping and pre-auth behaviour. For table service the terminal has to handle a tip prompt and, in some trades, a pre-authorisation. Both are features of the terminal software rather than the price, and both are worth seeing demonstrated before you sign.

The trade uses 'portable' for a terminal that works within range of a base or a network and 'mobile' for one that goes anywhere on a SIM, and it uses both loosely. What matters for the price is simpler: a self-contained terminal costs more than a reader that borrows your phone, whether you buy it or rent it, and the transaction rate is usually the same either way. Five of the seven providers here print that rate; the figures run 1.40% to 1.75%.

Where a portable terminal uses a mobile network, somebody pays for the SIM. On a bought device that cost is sometimes printed and often folded into the rate; on a rented one it is a line in the agreement. It is a small number that is easy to forget and it recurs, which is the same shape as the authorisation fee: a few pence per transaction that is invisible on a rate card and visible on a statement.

The hardware on this shelf is largely made by two or three manufacturers, so two providers can quote very different prices for what is physically the same terminal. What you are paying for is the acquiring relationship, the support and the contract, not the plastic. That is worth knowing before comparing model numbers, and it is why this index compares what providers PRINT rather than what they ship.

Common questions

What is the difference between a portable and a mobile card machine?

A portable terminal works within range of a base station or a wifi network; a mobile one has its own SIM and works anywhere with a signal. Providers use the words loosely. For price, the meaningful split is between a self-contained terminal and a reader that pairs with your phone.

Do portable card machines work without wifi?

Only if they have their own mobile connection. A wifi-only terminal stops at the edge of the network, which is a common surprise in a beer garden or on a large site. If you take payment outdoors, buy the mobile version and check the coverage where you actually trade.

How much is a portable card machine in the UK?

The transaction rate is typically the same as the provider's other in-person rate, and this index prints the five that publish one: 1.40% to 1.75%. The device cost is the variable, and where a provider rents rather than sells it, the price is quoted rather than published.

Can I take a card machine abroad?

Usually not on a UK acquiring agreement, and doing so can breach it. Trading abroad is a different acquiring arrangement; ask before you travel rather than after.

Other machine types

• Compare Mobile card reader on printed rates
• Compare Countertop card machine on printed rates
• Compare Portable card machine on printed rates
• Compare EPOS till system on printed rates