UK card machine fees calculator
Enter your monthly card volume and average transaction. The calculator estimates 12-month effective cost across the major UK acquirers, including transaction fees, monthly fees and typical hardware costs. Headline rates rarely tell the real story below £20k monthly volume; this page does.
How we work this out: 12-month cost = card rate x your monthly card takings x 12, plus any fixed fee per sale x the number of sales (monthly takings divided by your average sale, x 12), plus any monthly fee x 12, plus the one-off price of the card machine excluding VAT. Rates are each provider's standard pay-as-you-go in-person price, read from its own UK pricing page on 8 October 2026. They assume every payment is charged that standard rate: Tide's rate is for UK consumer debit cards, Stripe's 1.4% + 10p is for EEA cards, and premium, business or overseas cards can cost more. Dojo publishes its rate only below £100,000 a year, so above that it is shown unranked. Worldpay publishes no standard rate, so it is not in the comparison. Your real cost depends on your card mix and anything you negotiate. Actual rates negotiated with brokers or interchange-plus deals vary. Hardware costs apply where the acquirer charges for the terminal. Read individual terminal reviews for full pricing detail, or see every provider ranked on the cheapest card machine in the UK page. For the full date-stamped published price table behind each provider, see the per-provider breakdowns: SumUp, Stripe, Square, Zettle, Dojo and Worldpay.
| Acquirer | Transaction rate | Monthly fee | Hardware (one-off) |
|---|---|---|---|
| SumUp Solo | 1.69% | £0 | £79 + VAT |
| Zettle Reader 2 | 1.75% | £0 | £29 + VAT |
| Square Terminal | 1.75% | £0 | £149 + VAT |
| Dojo Go Max | 1.20% below £100k a year (custom above) | £25 | £0 on the monthly plan (or £149 upfront, launch offer) |
| Tide Card Reader | 1.5% + 5p | £0 | £49 |
| Stripe Reader S700 | 1.4% + 10p (EEA cards) | £0 | £229 + VAT |
| Worldpay | Quote only, no published rate | Not published | Not published |
Source: MerchantHQ fees calculator, published headline rates
Transaction rate is applied to card volume; any fixed fee per sale is charged on each sale (monthly volume divided by average transaction); monthly fee is charged twelve times a year; hardware is a one-off amortised over the first twelve months for comparison.
View as plain-text Markdown
### Acquirer fee assumptions used by this calculator | Acquirer | Transaction rate | Monthly fee | Hardware (one-off) | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | SumUp Solo | 1.69% | £0 | £79 + VAT | | Zettle Reader 2 | 1.75% | £0 | £29 + VAT | | Square Terminal | 1.75% | £0 | £149 + VAT | | Dojo Go Max | 1.20% below £100k a year (custom above) | £25 | £0 on the monthly plan (or £149 upfront, launch offer) | | Tide Card Reader | 1.5% + 5p | £0 | £49 | | Stripe Reader S700 | 1.4% + 10p (EEA cards) | £0 | £229 + VAT | | Worldpay | Quote only, no published rate | Not published | Not published | Source: MerchantHQ fees calculator, published headline rates Transaction rate is applied to card volume; any fixed fee per sale is charged on each sale (monthly volume divided by average transaction); monthly fee is charged twelve times a year; hardware is a one-off amortised over the first twelve months for comparison.
| Acquirer | 12-month effective cost | Effective rate |
|---|---|---|
| Tide Card Reader | £2,089 | 1.74% |
| SumUp Solo | £2,107 | 1.76% |
| Zettle Reader 2 | £2,129 | 1.77% |
| Square Terminal | £2,249 | 1.87% |
| Stripe Reader S700 | £2,389 | 1.99% |
| Dojo Go Max | Quoted per merchant | Not published at £120,000 a year |
| Worldpay | Quote only | No published rate |
Source: MerchantHQ fees calculator, default scenario £10,000/month volume
Illustrative default scenario, cheapest first. Dojo and Worldpay are listed last, unranked: £120,000 a year is above the £100,000 band where Dojo publishes its 1.2% rate, and Worldpay publishes no standard rate. Change the volume and average transaction inputs above for your own figures.
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### Worked example: £10,000/month card volume, £25 average transaction (default scenario) | Acquirer | 12-month effective cost | Effective rate | | --- | --- | --- | | Tide Card Reader | £2,089 | 1.74% | | SumUp Solo | £2,107 | 1.76% | | Zettle Reader 2 | £2,129 | 1.77% | | Square Terminal | £2,249 | 1.87% | | Stripe Reader S700 | £2,389 | 1.99% | | Dojo Go Max | Quoted per merchant | Not published at £120,000 a year | | Worldpay | Quote only | No published rate | Source: MerchantHQ fees calculator, default scenario £10,000/month volume Illustrative default scenario, cheapest first. Dojo and Worldpay are listed last, unranked: £120,000 a year is above the £100,000 band where Dojo publishes its 1.2% rate, and Worldpay publishes no standard rate. Change the volume and average transaction inputs above for your own figures.
“The cheapest acquirer at £10,000 a month is not the cheapest at £80,000 a month. A one-off hardware cost dominates the effective rate at low volume but disappears at high volume, while a monthly fee does the opposite. Run your own real volume before you read anything into the ranking, and remember this model excludes interchange-plus pricing, AMEX surcharges and chargeback fees, which move the answer for larger or higher-risk merchants.”
How the calculation works
Each acquirer has a different cost model. The calculator estimates 12-month total cost by:
- Multiplying monthly volume by transaction-rate percentage.
- Adding any fixed fee per sale, multiplied by the number of sales (monthly volume divided by average transaction).
- Adding 12x monthly fee where the acquirer charges one.
- Adding hardware cost (one-off, amortised over 12 months for comparison).
- Approximating effective rate as percentage of monthly volume for like-for-like comparison.
What it does not do: factor in interchange-plus pricing for higher-volume merchants (where the rate fluctuates per transaction), surcharging, or sector-specific risk loadings.