UK Card Processing Fee Index 2026
Cite this dataset: Parker, A. (2026). UK Card Processing Fee Index: Published Fees Across UK Providers. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21536188
Edition 1, June 2026. Updated each cycle. Every figure is computed from our Card Acquirer Index.
Published headline card processing rates range from about 0.7% to 6% across the 42 UK acquirers we track, and 43% publish no rate at all, quoting custom or bespoke pricing only. The UK Card Processing Fee Index measures the range of advertised rates, pricing transparency and contract terms across the market, and is updated each cycle. We report rates as a range parsed from published figures, never as a single blended average.
Published UK card processing rates range from about 0.7% to 6% across the 42 acquirers we track, and 43% publish no rate at all.
Headline findings
is the range of published headline processing rates across the 42 acquirers tracked, from mainstream in-person to high-risk specialists.
quote no published rate at all, offering custom or bespoke pricing only, which makes like-for-like comparison hard.
publish a headline rate a business can see before contacting sales.
require a fixed term of 12 months or more.
offer a rolling or no-fixed-term contract.
The panel
The 42 acquirers we track break down across four tiers:
| Indicator | Value |
|---|---|
| Range of published headline processing rates across the panel | 0.7% to 6% |
| Acquirers quoting no published rate, custom or bespoke pricing only | 43% |
| Acquirers publishing a headline rate before contact | 57% |
| Acquirers requiring a fixed term of 12 months or more | 31% |
| Acquirers offering a rolling or no-fixed-term contract | 31% |
| Acquirers tracked in total | 42 |
Source: MerchantHQ Card Acquirer Index, June 2026
First-party data. Rates are reported as a range parsed from published figures, never as a single blended average.
View as plain-text Markdown
### UK Card Processing Fee Index: headline findings (Edition 1, June 2026) | Indicator | Value | | --- | --- | | Range of published headline processing rates across the panel | 0.7% to 6% | | Acquirers quoting no published rate, custom or bespoke pricing only | 43% | | Acquirers publishing a headline rate before contact | 57% | | Acquirers requiring a fixed term of 12 months or more | 31% | | Acquirers offering a rolling or no-fixed-term contract | 31% | | Acquirers tracked in total | 42 | Source: MerchantHQ Card Acquirer Index, June 2026 (https://merchanthq.co.uk/data/uk-card-acquirer-index/) First-party data. Rates are reported as a range parsed from published figures, never as a single blended average.
| Tier | Acquirers |
|---|---|
| Mainstream acquirers | 16 |
| Bank acquirers | 8 |
| Online gateway acquirers | 8 |
| High-risk specialist acquirers | 10 |
View as plain-text Markdown
### The panel: 42 acquirers by tier | Tier | Acquirers | | --- | --- | | Mainstream acquirers | 16 | | Bank acquirers | 8 | | Online gateway acquirers | 8 | | High-risk specialist acquirers | 10 | Source: MerchantHQ Card Acquirer Index, June 2026 (https://merchanthq.co.uk/data/uk-card-acquirer-index/)
“The 0.7% to 6% range is the most honest number on this page, but it also hides the most. The 43% of acquirers that publish no rate at all are not necessarily the most expensive, and the cheapest published headline often carries a fixed term or a monthly fee that the rate alone does not show. Treat the range as a map of the market, not a shortlist, and always price a deal on its full terms rather than its advertised percentage.”
Per-provider fee breakdowns
The index measures the market; these satellite pages break down what each major provider actually charges, with the current published price table date-stamped and cited, and a worked effective-rate example: SumUp fees, Stripe fees, Square fees, Zettle fees, Dojo fees and Worldpay fees. All are listed at card machine fees by provider.
Methodology
Every acquirer in the MerchantHQ Card Acquirer Index is recorded against a common schema: published headline rate, settlement timing, contract length and tier. For this index we report the range of published rates rather than an average, because acquirers quote on different bases (blended, interchange-plus, custom), and we count how many publish a rate at all versus quoting bespoke pricing only. The method is held constant between editions so the readings are comparable, and the edition date reflects the most recent re-audit of the panel.
Download the data
The full indicator table is available as a CSV under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence:
UK Card Processing Fee Index, June 2026 (CSV)
Fee questions, answered
Who pays credit card transaction fees?
The merchant pays them. Every card payment carries a merchant service charge made up of interchange (paid to the cardholder's bank), scheme fees (paid to Visa or Mastercard) and the acquirer's own margin, and it is deducted from the merchant's settlement, not added to the cardholder's bill.
UK merchants cannot pass the fee on directly: surcharging consumer debit and credit cards has been banned since January 2018, so the cost is absorbed into prices, and cardholders pay indirectly through the prices everyone pays. The published portion of that merchant cost is what this index measures: 0.7% to 6% across the panel, with 43% of acquirers publishing no rate at all.
How can I accept credit card payments without fees?
On card rails, you cannot: every acquirer in this panel charges a per-transaction fee, and the surcharge ban means you cannot reclaim it from consumers at checkout. What you can do is get every other cost to zero (no-monthly-fee pay-as-you-go accounts, no contract, no PCI charges) so you pay only when you sell, and route big-ticket payments off card rails entirely: open-banking pay by bank and bank-rail payment requests run materially cheaper than cards, and a plain bank transfer costs nothing. The honest version of "free card payments" is covered in full in how to take card payments for free.
Cite this index
To reference these figures, please credit MerchantHQ and link to this page:
Source: MerchantHQ, UK Card Processing Fee Index (Edition 1, June 2026), https://merchanthq.co.uk/research/uk-card-processing-fee-index/ (accessed June 2026).
Compiled by Oliver Mackman. Published by MerchantHQ. See also the Card Acquirer Index and our UK card payment statistics.