Switching card payment providers
Card-payment switching content is dominated by brokers selling alternatives. We write the exit-pain queries straight: notice periods, fees, terminal returns, and where merchants tend to land. No bias in the destination.
How to leave Worldpay
Worldpay (owned by Global Payments since January 2026) is the UK's largest legacy acquirer. Most exits are slow, contracts auto-renew, and terminals must be returned. Here is the working process for leaving cleanly.
How to leave Barclaycard Payments
Barclaycard Payments (the merchant-acquiring arm of Barclays) serves many UK small businesses, often through deals bundled with Barclays banking. Contract terms vary, so read your own agreement first.
How to leave Elavon
Elavon is a US-owned acquirer with significant UK SMB share, particularly via reseller deals. Exit specifics depend heavily on whether you signed direct or via a reseller (Independent Sales Organisation, ISO).
How to leave Paymentsense
Paymentsense and Dojo are the same company: Paymentsense's website terms say Dojo is a trading name of Paymentsense Limited (read 19 October 2026). Older contracts may be with Paymentsense itself or with a separate acquiring bank, so check which one you signed.
How to leave Take Payments
takepayments is a UK card machine provider that supplies terminals and arranges card processing through an acquiring bank, Elavon under its current UK terms. How you leave depends on which contracts you signed: the terminal hire with takepayments and the card processing agreement with the acquirer.
How to leave Stripe
Stripe Terminal is run on a no-fixed-contract pay-as-you-go basis in the UK, so leaving is mechanically simple. The harder work is migrating the underlying integration: webhooks, subscriptions on Stripe Billing, saved cards on Stripe Customers, and any custom Terminal SDK code.
How to leave Square
Square is no-contract pay-as-you-go in the UK. Leaving the payments side is straightforward; the harder bit is exporting POS data, customer directory, loyalty balances and any Square Online store before closing.
How to leave SumUp
SumUp is no-contract pay-as-you-go in the UK. Leaving is mechanically simple. The most common reasons to leave are higher card volumes that make 1.69% uncompetitive, or moving to a stack that integrates with a wider POS or banking relationship.
How to leave Tide Card Reader
Tide Card Reader is a no-contract product bundled with the Tide Business banking relationship. Leaving the card-reader side is simple; the question is whether you are also leaving Tide as a business bank account, which is a heavier process.
How to leave Dojo
Dojo is a leading UK SMB acquirer for hospitality and retail, mainly for busier businesses. Contracts are 12 months minimum with auto-renew. The exit is straightforward if you give correct notice; the trap is missing the renewal window and rolling for another year.
How to leave Tyl by NatWest
Tyl is NatWest's in-house SMB acquirer. Pricing is competitive when bundled with NatWest business banking, less so when the banking relationship ends. Contracts are 18 months standard; exits are cleaner than legacy acquirers but the notice trap still applies.
How to leave PayPal Zettle
PayPal Zettle is the no-contract payment-facilitator option from PayPal. There is no notice period and no exit fee. The exit complexity is in untangling the Zettle account from the underlying PayPal business account, particularly if you use PayPal for online checkout too.
How to leave Revolut Business card acceptance
Revolut Business offers card acceptance bundled with the broader Revolut business banking and FX product. Card processing is no-contract and competitive on rate, but the exit complexity comes from the banking relationship and FX positions if you hold multi-currency balances.
How to leave myPOS
myPOS is a Bulgarian-headquartered card-acceptance provider with significant UK SMB share, particularly in mobile and high-risk-adjacent verticals. Hardware is bought outright but locked to the myPOS account, and the underlying e-money account has its own closure process.
Per-acquirer switching guides are added as we research and verify the latest terms. Send corrections to editorial@merchanthq.co.uk.
When it is worth reviewing your provider
- Your renewal window is opening. UK contracts usually run 12, 18 or 36 months with 30 to 90 days' notice before they auto-renew. Missing the window is the most common way businesses get locked into a second term.
- Your rate has drifted. Interchange, scheme fees and acquirer margin all move, so the rate you signed a few years ago is rarely what a new customer would be offered now.
- Your hardware is near the end of its life. Terminals typically last around five years before batteries, certification updates and spare parts become a problem.
- Settlement keeps going wrong. Three or more genuine settlement problems in a year (late, wrong amounts, unexplained reserves) is a pattern, not bad luck.
- Your business has changed shape. New channels, products or average transaction sizes can put you outside what your current provider is set up for.
What is happening with your current provider?
My contract is ending or I want to leave
You are in control of the timing. The work is checking notice, minimum term and any exit fee before you commit to a date.
- Leaving your current provider, by provider
- Cancelling a specific contract
- Contracts and cancellation tracker
My rates went up without warning
Common at renewal and usually contractual. Worth knowing what you are actually paying before you negotiate or move.
Get quotes for this situation →My funds are held, frozen or in a reserve
The most urgent situation on this page, and the one where doing nothing is most expensive.
- The acquirer has frozen my funds
- I have breached a processing limit
- Rolling reserves and frozen funds explained
My account was closed or terminated
Whether it was a facilitator closing an account or an acquirer terminating one changes what happens next.
- Terminated by an acquirer
- Stripe closed my account
- PayPal closed my account
- Square closed my account
- SumUp closed my account
- Worldpay closed my account
Chargebacks or disputes are the problem
A rising ratio is what triggers reserves and terminations, so it is worth addressing before it becomes one of the situations above.
Get quotes for this situation →I think I am on the MATCH list
A listing follows a termination and changes which acquirers can take you at all, so it needs handling differently from an ordinary switch.
Get quotes for this situation →The business has changed shape
New products, new channels, a new country or a different average transaction can put you outside what your current provider underwrote.
- Check whether my acquirer still fits
- My payment profile was suspended
- Merchant accounts explained
- Why a merchant account gets declined
Before you move on price alone
Work out what you actually pay now, including monthly, PCI and terminal rental, not just the headline percentage. The effective rate calculator and the total cost of acquiring calculator do that, and the should I switch calculator nets it off against the cost of leaving.
Seven steps to switch
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01. Check your current contract
Find the minimum term, notice period, exit-fee clause and any hardware-return terms in the agreement you signed. Our card machine contracts tracker (/card-machine-contracts/) sets out how exit fees work provider by provider.
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02. Get quotes for your current shape
Pull your last 12 months of card volume, average transaction size and card mix, and compare quotes on the all-in cost, contract length, settlement schedule and hardware.
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03. Ask your existing provider first
Tell your provider you have a competing quote and ask whether it will match. Staying can be cheaper than switching and you keep your existing hardware and agreement.
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04. Get approved by the new provider before giving notice
Apply to the new provider and complete its identity, ownership and banking checks. Wait until you are approved and the new hardware has arrived before you give notice to the old provider.
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05. Give notice in writing
Serve notice by tracked email or recorded delivery inside the notice window, and ask the old provider to confirm the end date and any exit fee in writing.
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06. Run both setups briefly
Test the new terminal on real transactions and keep the old one available until you are sure the new one works, so you never have a gap in taking payments.
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07. Close the old account
Return any leased hardware, check the final settlement arrives (it can be held against chargebacks for a period), and cancel any direct debits once the final invoice is settled.
Switching FAQs
Does it cost anything to use MerchantHQ?
Nothing on top of the new provider's fees. Free to apply; you pay us nothing.
Does MerchantHQ handle the switch for me?
No. MerchantHQ does not serve notice, negotiate exit fees or manage cutovers. This page shows you how to do it. If you want quotes to compare, send a quote enquiry for 2 to 3 tailored quotes.
Do I have to give notice to switch card machine provider?
On a fixed-term contract, yes. Most UK acquirer agreements set a notice window before the end date, and many auto-renew if you miss it. No-contract providers (SumUp, Square, Zettle, Tide, Revolut) have no minimum term, so you can stop any time. Check your own agreement for the notice window.
Does my business stop trading during the switch?
It should not, if you plan it. Keep the old setup working until the new one has taken real transactions successfully, then give the old terminal back. The gap usually happens when notice is given before the new provider has approved you.
What if the new provider turns out worse than the old one?
Check the contract length, exit terms and settlement schedule before you sign, so you know how easily you could leave. A no-contract or short-term plan limits the risk while you test a new provider.
Not sure whether to move? The should I switch tool walks through it.
Related reading
For the steps in order, read how to switch UK card terminal providers.
Payments review: Derren Powell, payments and fintech specialist, formerly Vice President, Business Development (Merchants) at Mastercard. Independent reviewer; the MerchantHQ editorial team retains control of the final content.