Home » UK Payment Processing Companies & Merchant Account Providers » Worldpay Review

20th Oct 2023: Added transaction fee table. Updated Truspilot score.

Sept: 2022: Updated fees and card machine information.

Sept: 2018: First published.

Worldpay Review

Worldpay has improved over recent years and should be on the shortlist of most UK businesses looking to start taking card payments or switching providers.

Unfortunately, they haven’t improved the Worldpay / FIS website and it is not intuitive to navigate. We’re going to do our best to provide some clarity on what Worldpay offer businesses in the UK and how they compare to alternatives.

Worldpay Acquiring Services

One of the biggest advantages of working with Worldpay is that they are a merchant acquirer which typically means lower transaction fees as there is no middleman (i.e. ISO). Most payment service companies work in partnership with merchant account providers to authorise and/or process payment, but this isn’t the case with Worldpay.

In theory, this should make your contract situation simple (more on this later), as you’re only dealing with one company.

It also simplifies the technical side of your business accepting payments, as the company you deal with actually handles everything for you – especially important if you run into any technical problems. Another benefit of this is that you only need to have a single merchant ID for all of your card transactions.

Normally, to accept card payments for different types of transactions (face-to-face, by mail, cheque or phone and online) you will need a different merchant ID for each. With a WorldPay merchant account, you will only need one merchant ID for all types of transaction payments.

Worldpay Card Machines

Worldpay offers three highly-rated countertop, portable and mobile card machines for UK businesses manufactured by Ingenico: the Desk 5000, Axium DX8000, and the Move 500.

The main difference between them is how portable they are and this decision mostly comes down to where you need to accept card payments.

Desk 5000 countertop card terminal: Designed for over-the-counter and till payments, this countertop card machine is connected with a cable which means you can only use them at fixed locations. The upside is they process payments faster and have fewer connectivity issues than mobile or portable card readers.
Axium DX8000 Portable payment machine: Suitable for restaurants, pubs and cafes that need to accept payments at the till and customers’ tables. Bluetooth connectivity should give you enough mobility to accept payments within 50m from your base unit but you sacrifice a bit of speed and also need to keep the battery charged.
Move 5000 Mobile card machine: These card machines allow you to take payments anywhere in the UK with a mobile network connection – ideal for businesses with no fixed premises or professionals visiting customers on-site or at home.

Worldpay charges a fixed fee each month for their card machines.

Fixed Monthly Plan: £49.99/month per card machine with a set threshold (which they don’t publish online).
Custom Plan: £17.95/month per card machine and no transaction limit.

Both monthly plans will have variable transaction fees (see table below) based on the businesses and card type.

Each card payment rental contract has a minimum term of 18 months.

If you wish to accept payments over the phone, there’s an added cost of £9.99 per month.

A minimum monthly service charge of £15 is also applied

Payment Gateway Options

Standard Gateway From £19.95 Per Month	Advanced Gateway From £45 per Month	Gateway Enterprise Bespoke Pricing
350 transactions included	850 transactions included	Lowest transaction fee based on volumes
No set-up fee	No set-up fee	Bespoke set-up available
Visa Checkout and PayPal	Visa Checkout and PayPal	Visa Checkout and PayPal
Digital payment links	Digital Payment links	Digital payment links
Phone payments	Phone payments	Phone payments
Standard fraud management tools	Standard fraud management tools	Advanced fraud management tools
Support service	Support service	24/7 support line
Minimum contract applies	International payment methods	International payment methods
	Additional alternative payment methods (eg Apple Pay)	Additional alternative payment methods (eg Apple Pay)
	Minimum contract applies	Fully customisable
		Account management
		Minimum contract applies

Worldpay offers extensive online payment services for businesses of all sizes and you’re well-covered regardless of whether you’re an online-only venture or need to add online payments to your existing business.

Payment Gateway: Payment gateways are available via their partnership with pay360.com. Worldpay charges £19.95 per month for their standard payment gateway package (up to 350 transactions per month) and £45 for their Advanced Gateway package (up to 850 transactions per month). A bespoke quote will be needed for over 850 transactions per month.
PCI Compliance: Charged at £29.99 per year.
Email payments: Save time chasing unpaid invoices with Pay By Link emails.
International payments: They accept 120 currencies and operate in 40 countries.
Fraud and risk management: One of Worldpay’s biggest strengths is its fraud and risk management capabilities, helping you and your customers do business securely.
Data and analytics: You can also get detailed reports on how your business is performing online to help you spot opportunities for improvement.

Worldpay’s online payment services should cover all bases for most business types and the company is particularly strong when it comes to supporting payment types (international payments, alternative payments, etc.) and the security side of things.

With a WorldPay online merchant account, you will only need one merchant ID for all types of transaction payments (in person, online or over the phone).

Virtual terminal

Worldpay’s virtual terminal software enables businesses to accept payments over the phone or by mail and the transaction rates are same are below. You can compare them to other virtual terminal provider fees here.

It is also worth noting you can use their regular card machines as a virtual terminal. The advantage of using the online virtual terminal on your computer is to keep your card machine free for face to face transactions.

POS System

Worldpay now offers a point-of-sale system called Worldpay Hub. This gives you a simple tablet-based checkout system designed for small businesses. This is generally suited to pubs, restaurants, cafes and other small businesses such as small retailers and hairdressers.

Worldpay’s Fees

Worldpay has been forced to become more transparent with its fees due to Direction 14 from the Payment Systems Regulator (PSR) introduced in October 2022.

Fees will vary depending on the turnover value of your monthly card transactions, but higher card turnover businesses will typically be offered lower fees.

Visa & Mastercard 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	Credit	Business	Debit	Credit	Business
£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.

Other fees include:

Authorisation fee on each transaction: 4.5p
Chargeback fee: £20.00
PCI DSS service fee: £5.00
Minimum monthly service charge (MMSC): £15.00

You may also be interested in our list of UK payment processors.

Contracts

Worldpay has had to reduce its minimum contracts from three years with an auto-renewal clause to an 18-month contract due to 2022 PSR regulations.

To end your contract, you need to give 30 days written notice. If you fail to do so you’ll be signed up for an extension and obliged to pay an early termination fee if you want to cancel it.

This is standard practice among most payment service providers and a constant source of complaints from customers.

Takeaway: Read the small print and to understand your contractual obligations (or ask us to review it).

Sales & Transparency

Thanks to Direction 14 which was implemented as a result of the the market review into the supply of card-acquiring services carried out by the Payment Systems Regulator, Worldpay has been forced to become more transparent about their transaction fees.

They still make it hard to find pricing information on their website which is either intentional or because whoever they used to design their website cares far more about aesthetics than user experience. However, you can get a pricing quote from this page but be aware these are indicative prices only and each business will need a bespoke quote (which we can get for you).

As with many companies in this industry, Worldpay uses sales reps to get new businesses on board and some can be overly keen to get their commission.

Customer Support

Worldpay is one of the few payment service providers to offer 24/7, UK-based customer support – both over the phone and via email.

There’s also an online support section on the Worldpay website that offers documentation for account management and common problems you might run into. This is the only part of the Worldpay site that offers any real value but at least we can say there’s a well-rounded customer service and technical support system in place.

Reviews & Reputation

Worldpay currently has a score of 4.7/5 with over 6,200 reviews on Trustpilot which is very good for a company of this size.

Below shows the mix of their review scores each month in 2023. You can see the proportion of negative reviews is decreasing.

Their ratings have been increasing since we starting tracking them (they averaged just 2/5 when they had 1,116 reviews a few years ago) so improvements are being made. At present 69% of reviewers say their experience with Worldpay has either been great (4%) or excellent (65%).

As expected, most of the complaints come down to contract issues, problems with leasing card machines, hidden costs and merchant funds being withheld. There are also a lot of complaints from customers saying they were mis-sold services by sales reps.

When things are going right for Wordplay customers, they seem to enjoy the best of its customer service. But when there are issues with contracts, disputes over fees and complaints about sales reps, the quality of its customer service appears to drop significantly.

Verdict

Worldpay is a true industry leader and there isn’t much it can’t offer businesses of all sizes. Its transaction fees are competitive, particularly for larger businesses. When things go right with Worldpay, its customers appear to be very happy.

Like many of its competitors, it needs to continue to improve transparency, contractual terms and customer service.

If you’d like to compare Worldpay with other merchant account providers fill in our online quotation request form and we’ll have a quick call to understand your business and then email you a breakdown of the lowest fees we can secure.

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