Barclaycard Merchant Services Review & Fee Analysis

Businesses also need to be aware of the other card processing fees they will be liable for. Some of the fees and features of Barclaycard merchant services include:

• Authorisation fee: 3p
• Chargeback fee: £20
• Card Machines: £15+VAT – £29+VAT per terminal per month
• Payment Gateway: £20.00 per month
• PCI DSS service fee: £4.80 per month
• Minimum monthly service charge (MMSC): £20.00
• Cards Accepted: Visa, Mastercard, Diners, JCB, UPI, American Express, Maestro (higher fees for Amex, corporate, and international cards)
• Settlement speed: Next day

Barclaycard Card Machines

Barclaycard currently offers 3 card payment machines with different contract terms and transaction fees.

• Smartpay Touch: They use the PAX A920, an all-in-one Android Point-of-Sale device. Aimed at the retail and hospitality sector, which requires stock, reporting and booking apps included. Next-day settlement for payments taken before 7pm.
• Barclaycard Flex: Standalone mobile terminal for counter or portable use. The next-day settlement cut-off is 9pm.
• Smartpay Anywhere: Basic pay-as-you-go pocket reader and phone app.

Device	Smartpay Touch (PAX A920)	Barclaycard Flex (Ingenico Move 5000)	Smartpay Anywhere
What it is	Smart POS (payments + POS apps, stock, reporting, bookings etc)	Standalone terminal for counter & portable use	Pocket reader + smartphone app (PAYG)
Fee	£29 + VAT per month	£15 + VAT per month	£29 + VAT one-off price
Credit Card Processing Fees	0.7% – 1.5%*	0.7% – 1.5%*	1.60%
Dedit Card Processing Fees	0.3% – 0.6%	0.3% – 0.6%	1.60%
Contract	12 months	18 months	Pay as you go (no contract)
Connectivity	Smart SIM (auto strongest network) + Wi-Fi	Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, mobile data	Wi-Fi & mobile data via phone

* The transaction fees will vary depending on the card processing volume, with higher card volume typically resulting in lower fees.

For start-ups and low-turnover businesses, Barclaycard offers fixed transaction fees of 1.6% for debit and credit cards, along with their basic Barclaycard Anywhere card reader.

For businesses looking for lower transaction rates, Barclaycard offers two card machines on a monthly contract: the highly rated PAX A920 smart terminal on a 12-month contract for £29+VAT per month, or the Ingenico Move 5000 on an 18-month contract for £15+VAT.

For card machines leased on a monthly contract, the transaction fees charged will vary depending on your business type and transaction (volume and average transaction values). Typically, the fees charged for debit, credit and business card transactions will be cheaper overall than a fixed 1.6% rate charged on their pay-as-you-go contract.

Smartpay Fuse

Barclaycard’s modern gateway for small, medium and mid-market corporates as well as independent software vendors (ISVs). With REST APIs, a hosted checkout option, virtual terminal/MOTO, subscriptions and wallet support. It also bundles fraud tools and developer resources (sandbox, SDKs).

This can be integrated into most websites and allows customers to pay using a wide range of card types, digital wallets (Apple Pay and Google Pay) or bank transfers.

Smartpay Fuse is the better choice when time-to-market, hosted checkout, and developer ergonomics matter more than bespoke, multi-acquirer routing.

Integrations:

• Hosted payment page, which can be a full-page redirect or an iframe embedded within your current website.
• REST API is the primary interface for starting/managing transactions and admin tasks.
• Virtual terminal (MOTO) and subscriptions/recurring payments are supported.
• Ecommerce Platform integrations: Adobe Commerce (Magento), BigCommerce, NetSuite, OpenCart, PrestaShop, and Shopify.

Smartpay Advance

Smartpay Advance is Barclaycard’s enterprise omnichannel payment solution, able to connect to a wide range of acquirers. Smartpay Advance is a better choice when you need multi-acquirer reach, highly custom payment journeys, or complex enterprise setups across regions/channels. It is also designed for multinational, multi-channel use.

Smartpay Advance can combine offline and online payment channels, offering far more flexibility for customisation and integration with third-party software.

Smartpay Advance is a better choice when you need multi-acquirer reach, highly custom payment journeys, or complex enterprise setups across regions and/or sales channels.

Integrations:

• Hosted Payment Page
• APIs: Web Payment (SOAP) and Payments REST; wallet guides (e.g., Google Pay) target Advance specifically.

Security & Compliance

Barclaycard’s gateways are PCI DSS-compliant, and their card machines are built to PCI PTS standards. Barclaycard is responsible for transaction data security within its environment when it stores/processes/transmits on your behalf.

For online payments, Barclaycard provides PSD2/SCA support, most notably 3-D Secure (3DS2), and optional risk modules such as Barclaycard Transact (Kount) to apply SCA exemptions where appropriate.

Smartpay also offers tokenisation & secure vaulting (Token Management Service) to store primary account numbers (PANs) securely and use network tokens/cryptograms.

Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) is used in their Smartpay omnichannel solution to protect data end-to-end.

Finally, Barclaycard Bank PLC is FCA-authorised, providing UK merchants with regulatory assurance in addition to card-scheme and PCI controls.

International Payment Processing Capabilities

Barclaycard is the third largest merchant acquirer in Europe and offers payment processing in 32 European countries. They support 114 local currencies with settlement in up to 18 currencies.

Alternatives to Barclaycard Merchant Services

In addition to competing with merchant acquirers such as Worldpay, Global Payments, Elavon, and Lloyds Bank Cardnet, Barclaycard is facing pressure from the growing number of Fintechs, which have begun to erode its market share among larger clients.

On the other end of the card scale, Dojo, Paymentsense, Square, Zettle, and SumUp are proving successful at attracting lower-card-turnover businesses and onboarding SMEs that would have traditionally considered using a more established brand like Barclaycard.

Business Health & Future Prospects

Barclaycard is not as successful as it once was in cross-selling its merchant services to its business banking customers, and its enterprise clients are being lost to more nimble tech-focused payment processors (e.g., Sainsbury’s switching to Checkout.com).

This threat posed by tech-focused payment processors was articulated by the CEO, C.S. Venkatakrishnan, when he said, “I think there’s a broader strategic question for us, which other banks have faced. [Payments is] a very technology-driven business. Is there a comparative advantage in developing the technology or in implementing the technology or is there a comparative advantage in helping service [merchants] as part of a larger set of banking services?”

After reviewing their options for their payment division (i.e. expand, merge/JV, or sell), Barclays agreed on a strategic partnership with Brookfield Asset Management in April 2025. The aim is to improve and grow its UK payment acceptance (merchant acquiring) business into a standalone entity under the Barclaycard Payments brand. Barclays will invest approximately £400m upfront with Brookfield having the option to acquire up to 80% over the next 3 to 7 years.

The aim is to modernise their tech stack, improve their execution and pursue bolt-on deals but it remains to be seen if this will translate to a better customer experience. Their day-to-day payment processing service continues, while their payment acceptance unit is spun out as a standalone unit and invested in.

Customer Service and Tech Support

• General phone support: 0800 161 5343, Mon to Fri (9am – 5pm)
• Smartpay Advance:  0330 159 6665, 24/7
• Smartpay Checkout: 0800 151 0399, Mon to Fri (9am – 5pm)
• Smartpay Fsue: 01604 269518 or 0818 205 275 (outside of the UK), Mon to Fri (9am – 5pm)
• Online Help and FAQ
• Online troubleshooter for card machine problems