Elavon Review & Fee Analysis

Elavon Europe, based in Dublin, is a merchant services business that is a wholly owned subsidiary of U.S. Bank. It serves around 1.3 million customers and is one of the top 8 acquirers in Europe (see how it compares to other acquirers in digital payments statistics roundup). Its European operations represent around 30% of the bank’s global acquiring volume.

The business grew its UK market share with the acquisition of Sage Pay, later rebranded Opayo, in 2019 for £232 million. The UK accounts for approximately 20% of Elavon’s European turnover.

Elavon offers in-person and online payment solutions, with next-day funding options, and strong cross-border and multi-currency tools.

Merchants manage reporting, statements, and account changes through Elavon Connect, the company’s web portal, which offers live chat hours and phone support.

Elavon Fees

Elavon offers a fixed-price package (Start Simple) for low-card-turnover or seasonal businesses. The PAYG package offers 1.75% transaction fees plus £19 + VAT for each card reader. However, the majority of businesses will be better off with the bespoke rates they offer.

Elavon’s bespoke merchant service charges (MSC) are based on card turnover, card mix, merchant category code (risk), and sales channels (i.e., the proportion of online and in-person transactions). In addition to the MSC, standard items such as authorisation, PCI programme/non-compliance, refunds/chargebacks, minimum monthly service charge (MMSC) and terminal rental fees will be added to the monthly statement.

Larger enterprises can request IC++ pricing.

The Elavon online merchant quotation tool provides a rough guide on pricing. The rates below are indicative rates for retail businesses with an annual card turnover between £100k-£50m (average transaction value of £21-£30). Figures are accurate as of September 2025. As with nearly all providers, the higher the card turnover, the lower the rates.

Note: These rates are a guide; we can obtain bespoke rates for businesses that are often lower.

The table below illustrates how the MSC decreases with turnover. These are the rates quoted for a retail business with an average transaction value of £21-£30, and an annual turnover ranging from under £100k to £50m.

Quotes you receive will typically be in the format below. This is an example of an indicative quote for a retail company with an annual card turnover of under £100,000 and an average transaction value of £21-£30.

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

• Authorisation fee: 4p
• Chargeback fee: £25
• Card Machines: £26+VAT per terminal per month
• Payment Gateway: £25 per month
• PCI DSS service fee: £6 per month
• Minimum monthly service charge (MMSC): £30.00
• Cards Accepted: Visa, Mastercard. Can enable acceptance of Union Pay, JCB, DCI/Discover, and American Express
• Settlement speed: 48 hours (same or next day available at an additional charge)

Elavon Card Machines

Elavon offers six card processing machines, including countertop, portable, mobile smart POS, smart terminal, pocket reader, and an all-in-one EPOS.

Elavon Online Payment Solutions

Opayo is Elavon’s UK online gateway for processing payments on your website or over the phone, offering an all-in-one plan that includes a merchant account. The standard charge for the Elavon (Opayo) gateway is £ 25 + VAT per month, which includes 350 transactions.

Their gateway supports Apple Pay and Google Pay for UK merchants.

Hosted Payment Pages (Low Code Solution)

They offer two low-code hosted payment page solutions, Lightbox and Redirect. The hosted solution is the easiest to set up, as Elavon will handle the customers’ data, not the merchants.

Lightbox: This overlays the checkout form on top of the merchant’s checkout page to process the transaction. This means the customer does not have to leave the merchant’s website to complete the transaction.

Redirect: This involves redirecting to a checkout page hosted on Elavon’s servers.

They also offer a virtual terminal for phone payments and pay-by-link functionality.

Virtual Terminal (MOTO): This enables card payments over the phone in a secure browser screen.

Pay by Link: generates a secure URL and sends it by email/SMS/social for one-off or invoice-style payments.

Plugins

Elavon offers plugins for WooCommerce and Adobe Commerce (formerly Magento). You can also connect to other platforms, such as Salesforce, using third-party connectors like Asperato or by building a custom solution.

API Integration

For businesses seeking greater control over the customer checkout experience, they can connect directly to the Elavon payment gateway (server-to-server) through API integration.

Special features

It is worth noting that their gateway also has the following features:

• Plans and subscriptions: The Elavon payment gateway (EPG) enables users to manage recurring charges using stored card resources for automatic payment processing. The EPG will handle the payment schedule if merchants use its resources (e.g. stored cards, plans, subscriptions).
• Multi-Currency Conversion (MCC): Local prices are shown to customers.

Security & Compliance

Elavon provides a comprehensive PCI DSS support programme, helping merchants achieve compliance (including straightforward options like a hosted checkout to reduce PCI scope). Their card machines are PCI-certified and utilise Point-to-Point Encryption (P2PE) to protect card data from end to end.

For online and MOTO, Opayo Payment Gateway supports PSD2/Strong Customer Authentication with 3-D Secure (3DS2), plus tools such as AVS/CV2 checks, tokenisation (to securely store payment details for subscriptions/one-click returns), and Pay by Link/Virtual Terminal for phone or email payments.

Elavon also provides guidance on SCA exemptions and practical anti-fraud controls, along with an incident-response process.

International Payment Processing Capabilities

Elavon offers multi-currency tools that enable merchants to display prices in over 100 currencies, with settlement available in 17 currencies.

Dynamic currency conversion (DCC) enables international cardholders to pay in their home currency across 80+ currencies, enabling cross-border sales to customers in 200+ countries.

Alternatives to Elavon

Traditional merchant-acquiring competitors for processing physical and online transactions include Worldpay, Barclaycard, Global Payments, and Lloyds Cardnet.

For larger and fast-growing enterprises that are looking for integrated, omnichannel, and high-volume e-commerce solutions, rivals include: Checkout.com, Adyen, Stripe and Fiserv.

Business Health & Future Prospects

Elavon states that it processes transactions valued at nearly $577 billion annually worldwide.

Although we are nearing the end of 2025, the latest published financials for Elavon Europe are still from 2022, which show that payment volume increased by 35% to €141 billion and total revenue increased by 23% to €379 million.

Elavon expanded its payment solutions in 2024 through several new partnerships:

FreedomPay: Expanded collaboration to deliver integrated commerce solutions and omni-channel payments technology for large enterprise merchants in retail and hospitality across Europe.

Woo: Partnered with to help micro and small businesses in several European countries to accept online payments via the WooCommerce platform, by downloading a free payment extension.

Softpay: Teamed up to offer a SoftPOS payment solution, enabling Elavon customers across Europe to accept card payments using only their smartphone.

Unattended Payments: Implemented unattended payment infrastructure in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Hungary in collaboration with Visa to facilitate cashless transactions.

Customer Service and Tech Support

Customer service: 0345 850 0195 Mon to Fri 8 am-6 pm

Opayo product support: 0191 313 0299 24 hours a day, 365 days a year

Online support request

Address: 5th Floor, 125 Old Broad St, London EC2N 1AR

Latest News

Elavon partnered with Liberis in August 2025 to provide fast funding for small businesses in the United States. The partnership provides access to capital for over 275,000 US merchants, offering fast and flexible revenue-based financing.

Elavon also partnered with WooCommerce, expanding its collaboration to North America. Previously, they were only integrated across Europe, but from July 2025, Woo merchants now have access to Elavon acquiring in the US and Canada.