01 · The object
One terminal, one line on your statement, three different owners.
The device on your counter is assembled from parts, and so is the rate you pay for using it. Neither is a single price.
Scroll to strip a card payment down to its three prices, then run the same check on your own statement.
The device on your counter is assembled from parts, and so is the rate you pay for using it. Neither is a single price.
Consumer debit interchange is capped at 0.2% of the transaction inside the UK, consumer credit at 0.3%. Nobody can quote you more and call it their price.
Core scheme and processing fees to acquirers rose at least 25% in real terms between 2017 and 2023, which the regulator costed at at least 170 million pounds a year for UK business.
Whatever is left after interchange and scheme fees is your provider keeping the lights on. Under blended pricing you cannot see where it ends and the other two begin.
An initial minimum term cannot exceed 18 months, and after it the contract must roll on terms no longer than 31 calendar days, for merchants with card turnover up to 10 million pounds.
A cheap headline rate with an expensive terminal contract is not a cheap deal. It is the same money moved into a line you were not comparing.
Interchange first, because it is fixed. Scheme fees second, because they move. Markup last, because that is the conversation you are actually having.
Each lesson ends with a task you can finish before the shop opens. The calculator uses the legal caps for the capped part and your own statement for the rest.
In 2023 cards were 61% of all UK payments and carried nearly 86% of the value of retail transactions. The bill for that arrives once a month as a single percentage, and most owners have never been shown how to open it.
Each lesson names what we are counting, gives the numbers with their source, and ends with a task you can finish before opening time.
Before you compare quotes, learn the three parts every card payment is built from. Two of them are not set by your pro…
Lesson 02Interchange is the fee your customer's bank keeps. For consumer cards inside the UK it is capped, which means nobody c…
Lesson 03Scheme and processing fees go to Visa and Mastercard for running the rails. They are not capped, and the regulator has…
The same provider can quote you the same business three ways. Only one of them lets you see what changed when your bil…
Lesson 05Terminal rental is where a cheap headline rate quietly becomes expensive. There are hard limits on how long that contr…
Lesson 06Since the acquiring market review, providers have to hand you a summary box and run an online quotation tool. Both exi…
Start at lesson one, or jump straight to the calculator with your statement in hand.
Open the calculator