What is a merchant account?

A merchant account is a type of business bank account that enables a businesses to accept and process electronic payments. When a customer buys something from your business via card, the money is first deposited into the merchant account. Then these funds are transferred to your business bank account.

What is a payment processor?

The payment processing ecosystem can be a bit confusing with payment processors, merchant service providers, MSPs, merchant accounts, payment service providers and PSP terms being used interchangeably to describe companies specialising in just one or multiple stages of the card payment process.

Is a merchant account the same as a business bank account?

No, your business bank account is where money ultimately gets deposited after customers pay you. Before it gets there, it comes via a merchant account (if the customer paid by card).

How many merchant accounts will I need?

Most businesses will only need one. However, there are some providers have restrictions on the volume of monthly transaction so some higher volume businesses may need multiple accounts from merchant account providers.

What a typical merchant account fees?

Once you shortlist a few companies you need to speak to them in order to find the following if it is not obvious from their website: Transaction fees: This is what you’ll be charged every time someone pays you by card or using one of the online services you’re signed up to. This is normally set as a percentage for credit card transactions (between 0.5% and 4%) and as fixed fees for debit card ones (between 5p and 50p). Minimum Monthly Fee: Some providers will set a minimum monthly fee, which is the value of transactions you’ll need to make within a month. If, for instance, your minimum monthly fee is set at £50 and you only make £30 in card transactions for a particular month, your provider will charge you £20. Chargeback Fee: Chargebacks are the bane of the merchant services industry, as they could lead to losses for banks if it turns out that their merchant clients are engaged in unethical business practices. Thus, providers are stringent with their chargeback policies. If you get a chargeback, you will not only be charged the amount of transaction but an extra fee as well. Paypal, for instance, charges £14 per chargeback. Contract Length & Early Termination Fee: It is very important to look into this if you’re going to be tied down to a contract with your provider. Contracts can last between one and three years, and a number of providers will make it difficult for their clients to get out of these contracts by charging exorbitant early termination fees. Hidden fees: Hidden fees are, well… hidden and you’ll do well to spot them – one reason we like to look into the background of each company. If you are interested in knowing more about this, check out our article on credit card processing fees.

How should I choose the best payment services company?

Know what you need (and don’t): Aside from choosing payment services that provide everything you need, you want to make sure you’re not paying for anything you don’t need. Do your research: Always do your research on payment service companies before dealing with them. Be wary of third-party sales teams: Be wary of third-party sales teams and try to speak to companies directly. Compare quotes: Get quotes from multiple providers and carefully compare them. Don’t be afraid to negotiate: You’re well within your rights to negotiate with these companies – especially if you’ve been given a better price elsewhere. Know your contract: Make sure you read and understand everything in your contract before signing anything. Get a lawyer to review things for you, if necessary. The merchant account services and payment processing industry has a bad reputation for hidden costs, dodgy contracts and all kinds of headaches. In many cases, this is justified but so many issues with these companies would be avoided if contracts were fully understood before merchants sign them. Yes, contracts are made overly complex to catch people out but you have to be sceptical about the terms of any contract before you sign on the dotted line – especially in this industry.

What fees are changed by payment facilitators?

The fixed transaction fees charged by a payment facilitator is normally around 1.65% – 1.75% and up to 2.5% for ‘card not present’ transactions. These relatively high rates will really only make commercial sense for businesses with relatively low card turnover (less than £5K per month) and/or low average transaction values.

Home » UK Payment Processing Companies & Merchant Account Providers

UK Payment Processing Companies & Merchant Account Providers

Article Updates

Oct 2024: Added Clover with indicative fees.

Oct 20th 2023: Added detailed transaction fees tables for Worldpay, Barclaycard and Elavon. Removed Opayo after their merger with Elavon.

Oct 22nd 2022:
Added more information on Trust Payments, Checkout.com, Cashflows, Tyl by Natwest, Mollie and Total Processing. Added a more detailed breakdown on fees.

Written by

Andrew Parry

Updated 2nd October 2024

The payment industry can be confusing. There is limited transparency about fees, the terminology isn’t consistent and the relationship between companies is often hidden in the small print.

This is an overview of the companies involved in card processing in the UK and the specific providers that may be best for your business.

Before we start comparing payment processing companies, it is worth clarifying there are 3 elements involved in processing debit or credit card payments:

A Merchant account from an acquiring bank
A Payment processor
A Payment gateway (online gateway or physical POS card terminal)

Most merchant service providers will offer to provide all 3 elements. A recent PSR survey indicated 84% of small and medium-sized merchants buy all the products and services they need to accept card payments from or via a single provider.

However, most of these ‘full service’ merchant services providers for small businesses in the UK outsource certain elements to third parties. It is worth knowing which companies do what as it can affect the fees you pay and the service you receive. These companies are can be split into three main categories:

Merchant acquirers that own and operate merchant accounts and carries out payment processing services (e.g. Worldpay).
Independent Sales Organisations (ISOs) or Payment Service Providers (PSPs) that provides payment processing services and offers merchant accounts via their partnership with a merchant acquirer (e.g. Handepay)
Payment facilitators/aggregators that enable businesses to process payments without the need for a dedicated merchant account or a monthly contract (e.g. Zettle).

Which payment processor is best for your businesses? Let’s start with giving a list of the popular merchant acquirers, also known as merchant account providers.

Most Popular Full Service Payment Processing Companies For Small Businesses In The UK

The 5 most popular merchant account providers are Worldpay, Barclaycard, Lloyds Cardnet, Elavon and Global Payments (as measured by the value and volume of card transactions).

Barclaycard and Worldpay are by far the largest and are used by 40%-50% of businesses in the UK with an annual card turnover of up to £10 million. No other merchant acquirer has above 10% market share. They are also the largest by turnover in Europe (see a more detailed breakdown of the largest merchant acquirers in our analysis of the global digital payments market).

Worldpay

Having been spun off by RBS and sold to two private equity firms in 2010, Worldpay’s latest owner is FIS which purchased it for $43 Billion in 2019. It is the largest full-stack payment processor in the UK and together with Barclaycard processes about 70-80% of card transactions by volume and 60-70% of card transactions annually.

Card schemes: Worldpay is an acquirer for the Mastercard, Visa, DCI, JCB, and UPI card payment systems. It also facilitates the acceptance of American Express.
Card terminals: They offer card terminals via a partnership with Ingenico. The rental fees for their card machines start at £17.95 per month.
Payment gateways: They offer payment gateways and virtual terminal services from £19.95 per month.
Fixed price options: For low card turnover businesses they have a £49.99 ‘Pay-As-You-Go’ tariff with an 18-month minimum contract. This will only be viable for a very small number of businesses due to the limits imposed by the fair usage policy.
Pricing model: The vast majority of merchants will require a custom quote (we can negotiate on your behalf as often get preferential rates due to our buying power). Whilst they offer IC+ and IC++ pricing for very large businesses, most will be offered standard blended pricing.

Worldpay Transaction Fees

The fees below aren based on Worldpay’s own data for a Retail business with an Average transaction value of £25. They are to be used as a guide.

A bespoke quote will be needed to get the exact rates for your specific business.

Table: Mastercard / Visa transactions fees charged by Worldpay for a retail business with an average transaction value of £25

Average Annual Card Turnover	In Person Card Fees			Online / MOTO Fees
	Debit Card	Credit Card	Business Cards	Debit Card	Credit Card	Business Cards
£25,000	0.60%	1.50%	2.60%	1.00%	1.90%	3.00%
£50,000	0.60%	1.40%	2.50%	1.00%	1.80%	2.90%
£100,000	0.50%	1.20%	2.20%	0.90%	1.60%	2.60%
£200,000	0.40%	1.00%	2.10%	0.80%	1.40%	2.50%
£500,000	0.40%	0.90%	2.00%	0.80%	1.30%	2.40%
£5,000,000	0.30%	0.80%	1.90%	0.70%	1.20%	2.30%
£10,000,000	0.30%	0.70%	1.80%	0.70%	1.10%	2.20%

Worldpay’s indicative pricing correct as of 20th Oct 2023

Check out our Worldpay Review for more details about Worldpay’s fees.

Barclaycard

Along with Lloyds, Barclaycard is one of just two card acquirers that is owned by UK headquartered banks. Like its main competitors, it is a full-service payment processor and offers card-acquiring services, POS terminals, card readers, payment gateways and value-added services.
Together with Worldpay, Barclaycard provides card-acquiring services to 50-60% of UK merchants with an annual card turnover above £10 million.

Like Lloyds Cardnet, Barclays is very selective about the businesses it provides payment services for. It will want to look through your company history and assess your business model before offering any kind of contract.

Card schemes: They are an acquirer for Mastercard, Visa, DCI, JCB and UPI and also facilitate the acceptance of American Express.
Pricing model: Barclaycard merchant service charges are available on request only and determined by your business and card turnover. They offer IC++ pricing options for their largest merchants.
Fixed fee options: Low card turnover businesses that may be considering Square, Sumup and Zettle may want to check out their Barclaycard Anywhere card reader which they launched in 2014. This is currently £29+VAT for the device and 1.6% per transaction.
ISO Partnerships: takepayments, UTP

Barclaycard Transaction Fees

The fees below are based the data provided by Barclaycard Merchant Services and based on a Retail business with an Average transaction value of up to £40. They are to be used as a guide.

A bespoke quote will be needed to get the exact rates for your specific business.

Table: Mastercard / Visa transactions fees charged by Barclaycard for a retail business with an average transaction value up to £40

Annual Card Turnover	In Person Payments			Online / Telephone Payments
	Debit	Credit	Business	Debit	Credit	Business
Under £240,000	1.75%	2.45%	2.52%	2.05%	2.75%	2.82%
£240,000 – £750,000	1.19%	2.10%	2.52%	1.49%	2.40%	2.82%
£750,000 – £6.6M	0.70%	1.75%	2.45%	1.00%	2.05%	2.75%
£6.6M – £25M	0.70%	1.00%	2.00%	0.95%	1.25%	2.25%
£25 – £50M	0.6%	0.95%	2.00%	0.85%	1.20%	2.25%

Barclaycard indicative pricing correct as of 20th Oct 2023

Our Barclaycard Merchant Services Review includes more details about their fees, services and card terminals.

Elavon

Elavon, a subsidiary of U.S. Bancorp, grew its UK market share with the acquisition of Sage Pay in 2019 which was then rebranded to Opayo. Sage Pay was the fourth largest merchant acquirer in Europe. From March 2023, they stopped using the Opayo branding and redirected the Opayo websites to Elavon.co.uk or elavon.ie.

Card schemes: They are an acquirer for the Visa, Mastercard, DCI, JCB and UPI and also facilitate the acceptance of American Express.
Transaction Fees: For in-person transactions, Elavon advertise teaser rates starting at 0.99% but most businesses will not qualify for this.
Payment gateway fees: They offer 2 payment gateway options. Their pay as you go option has no monthly fee and transaction fees starting at 1.99% + 12p. Their other option is £25 per month with transaction fees starting at 1.5%.
Card Terminals: They offer a fixed price card reader for their smallest merchants (£29 device cost and 1.75% transaction fees) and Tetra and Poynt card terminals ranging from £15 – £33 per month with variable transaction fees. Their talech EPOS system starts at £79.99 per month.

Elavon Transaction Fees

The fees below are based the data provided by Barclaycard Merchant Services and based on a Retail business with an Average transaction value of up to £40. They are to be used as a guide.

A bespoke quote will be needed to get the exact rates for your specific business.

Table: Mastercard fees charged by Elavon for a retail business with an average transaction value of £21-£30

Annual Card Turnover	In Person Payments			Online / Phone Payments
Mastercard Only	Debit	Credit	Business	Debit	Credit	Business
Under £100,000	0.91%	1.01%	1.41%	0.95%	1.05%	1.85%
£100K – £250K	0.81%	0.91%	1.31%	0.85%	0.95%	1.75%
£250K – £500K	0.71%	0.81%	1.21%	0.75%	0.85%	1.65%
£500K – £1M	0.61%	0.71%	1.11%	0.65%	0.75%	1.55%
£1m – £5M	0.51%	0.61%	1.01%	0.55%	0.65%	1.45%
£5M – £10M	0.46%	0.56%	0.96%	0.50%	0.60%	1.40%
£10m – £50M	0.46%	0.56%	0.96%	0.50%	0.60%	1.40%

Elavon indicative pricing correct as of 20th Oct 2023

View our Elavon Review to see a kore detailed overview of Elavon’s fees (including Visa transaction charges which are slightly higher than Mastercard).

Global Payments

Global Payments owe most of its UK customers to HSBC. They jointly owned the HSBC Merchant Services JV until 2009 when HBSC sold their last stake in it to Global Payments Inc for $308 million. They retain close ties and Global Payments remains HSBC’s payment processing partner.

Its attempted $70 billion merger with FIS collapsed at the eleventh hour in December 2020.

Lloyds Bank Cardnet

Lloyds Bank Cardnet comes with the usual issues associated with a UK merchant account provided by a high-street bank: a lengthy application process, long-term contracts and high termination fees.

Clover

Fiserv’s UK business was rebranded as Clover after purchased it parent company, First Data, in an all-stock deal in 2019.

They attract a lot of their UK customers indirectly through their ISO partnerships who use their proprietary hardware like the Clover Flex, Mini, Duo and Solo. They are best suited to the retail and hospitality sectors as their in house ecommerce and gateway offering is relatively poor.

Clover Fees

The fees below are based the data provided by Clover’s PSR quotation tool based on a MCC code 5999 (Miscellaneous and Specialty Retail Stores) in October 2024 with an average transaction value of £25. They are to be used as a guide. A bespoke quote will be needed to get the exact rates for your specific business.

Table: Visa and Mastercard fees charged by Clover for a retail business with an average transaction value of £25 at 3 levels of annual turnover.

	In Person Visa / Mastercard			Online/MOTO Visa / Mastercard
Annual Turnover	Debit	Credit	Business	Debit	Credit	Business
£25,000	0.68%	1.25%	2.19%	0.83%	1.50%	2.47%
£250,000	0.50%	0.85%	1.80%	0.65%	1.10%	2.07%
£2,500,000	0.45%	1.05%	1.75%	0.60%	1.05%	2.02%

Gateway fee: 10p per transaction
Authorisation fee: 3.25p
PCI fee £4.99
Minimum monthly service charge (MMSC): £20
Chargeback fee: £25

Tyl by Natwest

NatWest developed Tyl in partnership with software company Pollinate International using Clover hardware and First Data as a payments processor. Natwest acts as a reseller for the service and is one of the few UK high street banks that offers card payment machines.

The Tyl team worked collaboratively with SMEs to design the service, which provides card terminal rentals, a virtual terminal, an online payment gateway and payment links. Tyl aims to bring together technology and smart data analytics to help businesses make informed decisions to manage their businesses and grow successful.

Tyl says that it has a streamlined onboarding process that can get accounts up and running in 48 hours and offers fast payouts, with card payments expected to reach your business bank account the next working day.

Card schemes: Visa, Mastercard, American Express
Transaction fees: Businesses with annual turnover up £50,000 pay a flat rate of 1.5% per Visa or Mastercard transaction, whether the payment is made by card, phone or online. American Express rates vary by industry. Businesses with higher turnover can negotiate tailored rates.
Tyl payment gateway fees: Merchants can accept payments online or over the phone for a flat monthly rate of £14.95 + VAT.
Card terminals: Tyl leases several card machines including the following (monthly fees exclude VAT):
- Clover Flex POS system for £14.99 per month with Wi-Fi and £16.99 for a Wi-Fi and 4G option.
- The Ingenico Move 3500 portable card machine costs £19.99 per month with Wi-Fi and £21.99 monthly for Wi-Fi + 3G.
- Ingenico Desk 3500 costs £13.99 per month.
- Wi-Fi + 3G/4G + Bluetooth-enabled PAX A50 mobile payment device costs £6.99 per month or £75 to buy outright. The first three months of a rental are free.

Cashflows

Launched in 2010, Cashflows is a merchant acquirer and a principal member of the Mastercard and Visa card schemes. It offers merchant account services to customers across the European Economic Area (EEA) an

It offers omnichannel payment processing with online, in-app and in-store payments integrated into one platform.

Some standout features real-time transaction monitoring and Anytime Settlement which enables businesses to set up three-day, next-day or even same-day settlement in a range of currencies.

Card schemes: Cashflows is a principal member of the Mastercard and Visa schemes. It also holds license agreements with American Express, Discover, Union Pay International and JCB.
Transaction fees: Varies by business.

Card terminals: Cashflows is accredited for Ingenico and Castles terminals, including the Ingenico Move 5000 portable device.

Paymentsense

Paymentsense an ISO of Fiserv / First Date Europe LTD and has continued to grow its market share over the last few years. They have a large (and some would say persistent) sales team who are given a certain about of flexibility to buy businesses out of their existing contracts.

The firm’s online reputation is mixed employees are open about how bad some customers are treated on employment boards. It’s generally praised for its locked-in rate guarantee but there continue to be complaints about lengthy contracts.

They also own Dojo.tech where the majority of their new customers come from (they continue to operate both brands but internally they are rebranded to Dojo and may do the same for their customers).

Takepayments

Takepayments is an ISO of Barclaycard. They offer a 12-month contract and no fees if you decide to leave once your contract is up.

There are cases of expensive cancellations and contract problems reported but not in the same volume most ISOs tend to be surrounded by. Meanwhile, its biggest problem appears to be a somewhat unresponsive and underwhelming customer support system when things go wrong.

Handepay

Handepay used Evo Payments International for card acquiring services. It positions itself as an ISO that cuts out the complication and “unnecessary” fees that typically come with payment processing.

It promises no setup fee, no authorisation fees and no minimum monthly service charge. Their online reputation is pretty good with contract renewals & cancellations one of the largest sources of complaints.

RMS (Retail Merchant Services)

They have recently been bought by Saltpay (now rebranded Teya) having previously partnered with Elavon. They use Ingenico or Verifone card machines and are currently offering terminals with no monthly fees.

Its reputation is relatively poor with mainly complaining and high fees or hidden charges. Hopefully, their new owner can solve some of their issues which seem to have contributed to several loss-making years.

UTP (Universal Transaction Processing)

Formed in 2013, UTP Merchant Services Ltd uses Barclaycard as its acquiring partner. Its rates are not the most competitive and unfortunately, they have had quite a few unhappy customers venting their frustration online.

Most Popular Specialist Payment Gateways

The providers below are all specialise in processing payments online. Some acquirers have their own high quality payment gateways (e.g. Ayden) whilst others will use a third party (i.e. Worldpay using Pay360) or use white label payment gateway solutions from a company like Cardstream.

Although some offer card terminals they are typically used by businesses that have a large proportion of their payments processed online. You can see more details about them in our round up of payment gateway providers for UK businesses.

Ayden

Adyen is continuing to grow its market share in the UK amongst higher turnover multinational businesses. It is a payment gateway, acquirer, and processor for online and brick-and-mortar businesses. It requires only one system and one contract for multinational businesses to accept over 200 payment methods in over 150 countries.

Other major acquirers in the UK include Adyen, AIB Merchant Services, Chase Paymentech, EVO Payments, First Data and Stripe.

Trust Payments

Trust Payments is a UK-based fintech company that aims to provide seamless, omnichannel commerce experiences. It provides online payment, in-store POS, card-not-present, and mobile solutions to SMB and mid-market merchants in the UK, Europe and the US.

Trust Payments provides a merchant account and payment platform in one, with flexible account configuration so that merchants can set up their accounts in a way that best suits how they operate. Businesses can have separate accounts for different currencies or sales channels and take advantage of flexible settlement options to maximise their cash flow.

Trust Payments acts as a single point of entry to over 50 banks around the world for increased local payment acceptance. The company has more than 15,000 customers and supports 15 languages as well as over 160 payment methods and 150 currencies.

Card schemes: Trust Payments is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard, and also enables merchants to take payments via Discover, Union Pay, JCB and American Express.
Alternative payment methods (drop down)
Transaction fees: Charges for processing in-person transactions are available on request.
Payment gateway fees: You will need to contact Trust Payments for information on gateway costs, which will depend on your card turnover.
Card terminals: Merchants can choose from the Ingenico Move 5000 and Castles VEGA 3000M portable card terminals, as well as the Castles VEGA 3000C countertop device. The Trust Payments website lists the Ingenico Desk 5000 terminal as a future addition to its offering.

See our Trust Payments Review.

Checkout.com

Although well known as a specialist payment gateway they Checkout.com are also an acquirer and payment processor processor. They offer a modular, flexible payment platform enabling businesses to add the features required to take more payments in multiple markets.

Online payment processing is their USP and offer a hosted a payment gateway as well as a unified payments API. They have expanded their offering and now also offer bank to bank transfers, card issuing and payment solutions for market places and payment facilitators.

One of their core selling points is increasing revenue through better fraud detection, authentication, AI powered identity verification, next-gen security and encryption.

The company provides direct local acquiring in major markets, improving authorisation rates and lowering costs. Merchants can accept debit and credit cards in 47 countries in 150+ currencies, as well as digital wallets and local payment methods in certain locations.

The integrated platform provides advanced transaction-level data analytics and intelligent fraud monitoring powered by machine learning to help ensure you get the most value from each transaction.

Card schemes: Checkout.com is a direct acquirer for all the major card associations — Visa, Mastercard, American Express, JCB, Diners, Discover
Transaction fees: They offer flat rate and interchange ++ pricing (the flat rate is determined by characteristics of the business and risk profile.

Mollie

Dutch online payment processor Mollie is expanding rapidly in Europe and says it wants to become the “world’s most-loved payment service provider”. Its products are designed to simplify financial services with straightforward payments using multiple methods, seamless checkout, powerful integrations, flexible financing and strong security.

More than 130,000 merchants use Mollie to accept customer payments from all major payment methods for a localised experience.

Mollie aims to provide merchants with all the tools they need to expand with no minimum costs, lock-in contracts or hidden fees, and offer support from its specialist teams across Europe.

Card Schemes: Visa, MasterCard, American Express.
Alternative payment methods: They currently allow you to accept 31 methods of payment including SOFORT banking, SEPA, Bancontact, iDeal, KBC, Belfius, Bitcoin and PayPal.
Mollie’s payment gateway fees: 1.2-2.9% + 20-30p, with specific fees for each payment method.

Total Processing

Founded in 2015 by former merchants, Total Processing is a customer-focused payments company that delivers tailored online and in-store payment solutions for merchants across North America, Europe, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Total Processing provides access to more than 198 alternative payment methods.

The company offers bespoke packages including payment gateways with integrated digital payments, card readers and virtual terminals.

Total Processing has the ability to connect to a partner network of 300 merchant acquirers worldwide, enabling merchants to process payments through a local acquiring bank. Total Processing works with acquirers to support businesses with flexibility in their settlement periods, monthly minimum transactions and processing fees.

Transaction fees: Card terminals come with flexible pricing including low rental fees and transaction costs. You will need to contact the company to get a quote for the rates.
Total Processing payment gateway fees: Flexible payments model is based on the needs of your business.
Alternative payment methods: 198+ alternative payments including Apple Pay, Google Pay, Paypal, Giropay, Alipay, Klarna and WeChat Pay.
Card terminals: Merchants can choose from the Clover Mini portable device, Flex card reader and Station countertop terminal, Ingenico Move 3500 and Move 5000 mobile terminals, and Poynt 61b and Poynt 5 card readers.

Payment Facilitators (PayFacs): Best For Start-Ups & Nano Businesses

Payment facilitators offer new businesses a quick and hassle-free way to start taking card payments quickly. They act as intermediaries between acquirers and merchants as there is no direct contractual relationship between the merchant and the acquirer.

Payment facilitators are most suited to businesses new to card payments or those businesses with an annual card turnover up to around £20,000 – £30,000.

They are used by about 80% of merchants with annual card turnover under £15,000 but less than 5% of merchants with annual turnover above £60,000.

They provide aggregated merchant accounts with no minimum contract duration. As no dedicated merchant account is required then approval is much faster and relatively hassle-free.

Chart: Shares of supply of small and medium-sized merchants selling only or mainly face to face in 2019

: PSR analysis of data provided by acquirers and payment facilitators in April 2019. Active merchants only. Graph shows shares of supply of merchants that accept only or mainly (that is, more than 70%) face to face transactions.

The CMA in its investigation of the PayPal/iZettle merger indicated that merchant acquirers were better value for micro businesses and small businesses.

Many businesses start with payment facilitators and then switch to using one of the card acquiring companies above.

: Image source: Stripe

Payment Facilitator Customer Sign Up:

Businesses sign up via their websites and can get approved without lengthy due diligence or in-depth underwriting process.

Most Popular Payment Facilitators

Zettle (now owned by Paypal), Square and SumUp are by far the most popular payment facilitators for in-person transactions. The are suited to small businesses with a relatively low card turnover that want a cheap credit card reader without the need to sign up for a monthly contract or merchant account.

Paypal and Stripe are the most popular payment facilitators for startups and small businesses looking to take online payments.

Typical Payment Facilitator Transaction Fees

They all publish their transaction fees on their websites which are around the 1.6% – 1.75% level for card present transactions and 1.9% to 2.5% for card not present (CNP_ transactions (non-European cards will typically incur higher fees).

	In-Person with Card Reader	Online (UK card)	Online (EEA Card)
Sumup	1.69%	2.5% Payment links	N/A
Zettle	1.75%	2.5% Payment links	N/A
Square	1.75%	1.9%	1.9%
Paypal	N/A	1.2% + 30p	2.49 + 30p
Stripe	N/A	1.4% + 20p	2.5% + 20p

Zettle

After Paypal purchased iZettle (as it was called then) for $2.2 billion in 2018 and stopped promoting its own Paypal Here reader, Zettle has stepped up its fierce competition with Square and Sumup.

Their device is nearly always promoted with a discount as they wrestle for market share in the lucrative small business sector where high fixed transaction costs pull in some extremely healthy profit margins.

Sumup

SumUp, which uses First Data as its acquirer, is holding its own in the card reader wars with its Air and 3G card readers.

As with the other Payment facilitators above they remain focused on businesses with relatively low card volume who want simple pricing and no contractual tie-ins. They also offer online payment and pay-by-link options.

Square

Square, which uses First Data as its acquirer, allows businesses to accept a range of cards and digital wallets including Visa, V Pay, Mastercard, Maestro, American Express, Google Pay, Apple Pay and Samsung Pay.

Its minimal card reader is a common sight amongst cafes, hairdressers, mobile food vans and a plethora of other small businesses across the UK. It’s retail and hospitality POS system is also taking market share from more established EPOS providers.

Paypal

The Paypal brand name is synonymous with online payment processing, they are often the first port of call for new businesses looking to take online payments. They are the largest payment processor software provider with a global market share of 47.1% and over 472,000 companies using them at the time of writing.

In general, Paypal can be summed up as easy to set up but with expensive transaction fees. Their current Paypal fee structure is:

Standard payment from a user without a PayPal account – 1.2% + 30p
Additional fee if payment made from the EEA – 1.29%
Additional fee if payment made in other markets – 1.99%
QR Code Transactions – 1.5% if over £10 and 2% if under £10
All other commercial transactions – 2.5%

Stripe

Founded in 2011, Stripe has now raised over $3.7 billion of external investments and grown its global userbase to over 170,000. They offer a custom API service for larger businesses that want control over their payment gateway but smaller businesses are most likely best off using standard integrated service.

Their current fees for integrated payment is:

Standard payment from a user without a Stripe account:1.4% + 20p
Additional fee if payment made from the EEA:1.1%
Additional fee if payment made in other markets: 2.9% + 20p

Recurring Payment Specialists

GoCardless

GoCardless have grown into one the major provides in secure bank payment solutions since being founded in 2011. Their focus is making it easier and cheaper for small businesses to collecting instant, one-off payments and recurring payments.

They support direct bank payment collection from over 30 countries, they’re used by over 75,000 businesses globally and process $30bn in payments annually.

Payments accepted: Online bank to bank payments for 30+ countries including UK, US, Eurozone, Australia, Canada. Card payments not supported
Integration: Out-of-the-box customisable payment page or fully customisable API. Partner integrations with 350+ providers including Xero, Quickbooks and Salesforce
Pricing model: Standard package has no monthly fees or minimum commitment requirements. You are charged a fee of 1% of transaction value + £/€0.20 for domestic transactions, capped at a maximum £/€4 per transaction. International transactions charged at 2% + £0.20. There are some fixed monthly fee packages or option for bespoke contract pricing dependent on volumes or required features

Card Machine Providers

Most businesses will typically source their card machines via one of two routes. They will either order a mobile card reader from a payment facilitator like Square, SumUp or Zettle or lease their card machine(s) via their merchant account provider.

You can see our overview of the best card machines for small businesses here.

If you have a dedicated merchant account from a provider like Worldpay then you are likely to be offered countertop, portable and mobile card machines from one of the following credit card companies:

Most merchant service companies rely on one of these third-party terminal providers and don’t manufacture them in house even though they may be branded as their own machine (e.g. the Dojo card machine is a PAX A920).

Specialist High-Risk Merchant Accounts Providers

There are several reasons you might be classed as a high-risk merchant:

Your products/services are associated with high volumes of chargebacks.
Your industry is associated with reputational risk – eg: adult products, weapons.
Your business has a poor credit history.

If deemed a high-risk merchant you may find it harder to get approved by some of the more popular merchant service providers and may need a high-risk merchant account provider like Instabill, Verotel (adult specialist), CutPay or ccNetPay.

However, do not discount the larger merchant account providers as they do look at businesses in other payment processors regard as too high-risk (e.g. we have placed some high-risk businesses with Worldpay at competitive rates).

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs)

ISVs specialise in offering software (and in some cases, complementary hardware) that helps merchants run their businesses and often have referral arrangements in place with acquirers, ISOs and payment facilitators. Examples include Magento and Shopify for Ecommerce and EposNow for EPOS systems.

Sources

PSR Market review into the supply of card-acquiring services (Nov 2021)

PSR Annex 1

UK Finance UK Payments Market 2021

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