Should I switch card payment provider?
Switching is worth it when the annual saving clears the cost of leaving, and that is a different sum from comparing two headline rates. This works out what you actually pay now as an all-in effective rate, compares it against an indicative band taken from published UK headline rates, then nets the difference against your exit fee and remaining contract to give a breakeven in months. It is arithmetic on your figures, not a quote and not a promise that anyone will accept you.
What you pay now
Defaults to the median published headline rate on our panel. The band runs 1.5% to 2.5%.
| Your all-in effective rate now | - |
| Annual cost of acquiring now | - |
| Annual cost at the compared rate | - |
| Indicative annual difference | - |
| Breakeven after exit costs | - |
Not included, and they matter: any bespoke rate you could negotiate by staying, hardware buyout or return costs, interchange differences on your actual card mix, and whether a new acquirer would accept you at all. Nothing here is a quote, a saving you are guaranteed, or a statement that an exit fee can be negotiated away.
| Line | Value | Where it comes from |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly card volume | £40,000 | Your input |
| Current headline rate | 1.75% | Your input, before fixed fees |
| Fixed monthly fees | £35 | Terminal rental plus PCI and other monthlies |
| Compared rate | 1.69% | Median published headline rate across the panel in uk-acquirers.ts |
| Indicative band | 1.5% to 2.5% | Interquartile range of published headline rates on the panel |
| Exit cost | £300 | Your stated exit fee |
Source: MerchantHQ switching model; comparison band computed from published headline rates in uk-acquirers.ts
Indicative only. Published headline rates are not the rate any particular business is offered.
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### Worked example: the default scenario above | Line | Value | Where it comes from | | --- | --- | --- | | Monthly card volume | £40,000 | Your input | | Current headline rate | 1.75% | Your input, before fixed fees | | Fixed monthly fees | £35 | Terminal rental plus PCI and other monthlies | | Compared rate | 1.69% | Median published headline rate across the panel in uk-acquirers.ts | | Indicative band | 1.5% to 2.5% | Interquartile range of published headline rates on the panel | | Exit cost | £300 | Your stated exit fee | Source: MerchantHQ switching model; comparison band computed from published headline rates in uk-acquirers.ts Indicative only. Published headline rates are not the rate any particular business is offered.
“A headline rate comparison flatters switching, because the number you are comparing against is a published rate for a business that may look nothing like yours. Two things move the real answer more than the percentage does: your card mix, since a debit-heavy ledger and an AMEX-heavy one price very differently on the same headline, and whether your current provider will simply match the offer if you ask. The cheapest switch is often the one you do not make, after using the quote to renegotiate. Treat the breakeven here as the threshold a genuine offer has to clear, not as a saving you have already made.”
What this tool tells you
It nets the saving against the cost of leaving, which is the step most comparisons skip. For the rate itself in isolation, use the effective rate calculator; for the full annual picture, the total cost of acquiring calculator. If the reason you are leaving is not price, start from what is happening with your current provider, because a frozen account or a termination is a different problem from an expensive one.
Founder & Managing Director, Muswell Rose, founder and PSC of Best Business Loans Ltd
Adam is the founder and managing director of Muswell Rose and a founder of Best Business Loans Ltd, the company behind MerchantHQ. His career runs through insurance, mortgages, commercial finance and fintech lending, including payments and merchant services. He writes the MerchantHQ library.
Last reviewed: 7 September 2026