5 Ways to Reduce Your Payment Processing Costs
The One Thing You Can’t Do Reducing card processing costs in the UK comes with one hard boundary worth stating upfront: since January 2018, businesses cannot legally add a surcharge for a customer choosing to pay by consumer card. So “charge the customer more for using a card” isn’t on this list, because it isn’t […]
Comparing Payment Terminals: What to Look For
Where the Payment Happens Decides the Terminal The right terminal for a business is decided almost entirely by where the payment happens, not by which brand has the flashiest marketing. Countertop Terminals Countertop terminals sit fixed at a till, connected by cable or WiFi, and are the cheapest and most reliable option, since they don’t […]
Merchant Services UK: The Complete Guide
“Merchant Services” Means Four Different Things “Merchant services” is one of those terms that gets used to mean five different things depending on who’s selling it to you. Strip away the marketing and it covers four distinct pieces: the merchant account, the card machine or gateway, the EPOS system if you have one, and the […]
How to Accept Card Payments Online in the UK
The Payment Gateway Setting up online card payments looks simple from the customer’s side: type in a card number, click pay, done. From the business side, three separate systems are working together, and getting any one of them wrong either costs you sales or puts you on the wrong side of card scheme rules. The […]
What Are Interchange Fees and How Do They Work?
The Basic Mechanism Interchange is the fee your payment provider’s bank pays to your customer’s bank every time a card is used, and it’s the largest single component of what shows up on your statement as processing cost. The UK Caps In the UK, interchange on consumer cards is capped by law under the Interchange […]
The Hidden Costs of Card Payments
The Rate You’re Quoted Isn’t the Rate You Pay The rate a provider quotes when you sign up is almost never the number you actually pay. It’s the entry point to a longer list of charges that mostly only become visible once you’re a few months into a contract and start reading the statement line […]
How Scheme Fees Impact Your Bottom Line
A Fee You’ve Never Heard Of Scheme fees are the part of your card processing bill most business owners have never heard of by name, which is exactly the problem the UK’s Payment Systems Regulator set out to investigate. Why Scheme Fees Aren’t Capped Every time a customer taps or inserts a card, a small […]
Understanding Card Processing Fees: A Complete Guide
The Three Charges Behind One Line Every card payment a UK business accepts is really three separate charges wearing one disguise. The invoice from your payment provider shows a single line, but that line is built from interchange, scheme fees and a processor markup, and only one of those three is something you can actually […]