Taking card payments
without losing the margin.

Which method fits how you sell?

Most small businesses end up with two of these rather than one — a reader for on-site work and payment links on invoices. That is a sensible combination rather than a failure to choose.

How do the fees actually work?

Almost every provider charges a percentage of the transaction plus a small fixed amount per transaction. The fixed part is what makes small payments expensive in percentage terms — on a very small sale it can be several percent on its own.

The rate varies with how the card is presented. Tapped in person is cheapest, entered online is dearer, and keyed in by hand over the phone is dearest, because the fraud risk rises in that order. Commercial cards and cards issued outside the UK usually cost more again.

Watch the extras rather than the headline rate: monthly platform fees, hardware cost or rental, charges for a payout, minimum monthly commitments, and refund handling — some providers return the fee on a refund and some keep it.

Rates move and differ by provider, so compare current published pricing rather than a figure from a comparison article. Work out what your actual mix of transactions would cost, because the cheapest headline rate is frequently not the cheapest outcome for a business with a low average sale.

When does the money actually arrive?

• —Typical settlement is one to three working days from the transaction, not instantly.
• —Weekends and bank holidays extend it — a Friday afternoon job can settle on Tuesday.
• —New accounts are sometimes held longer while the provider completes its checks, which is worth knowing before you rely on the first payment.
• —Some providers offer faster or same-day settlement for a fee. Whether that is worth paying is a cash flow question, not a preference.
• —The amount that lands is net of fees, so the bank line will not match the invoice. Software that imports the payout and splits the fee out automatically saves a genuinely annoying monthly reconciliation.

Chargebacks, surcharges and the rules

You cannot add a surcharge for paying by card to a consumer. That has been the law since the Payment Services Regulations 2017, and it covers both debit and credit cards. Setting a minimum spend for card payments is a different matter and remains allowed, though it costs you goodwill.

A chargeback is the cardholder's bank reversing a payment after a dispute. The money is taken back from you while it is investigated, and a fee usually goes with it. Your defence is evidence: what was agreed, what was delivered, when, and signed or photographed proof where the job allows for it.

If you take card details yourself rather than through a hosted page, PCI DSS obligations land on you. For a small business that is a strong argument for hosted checkouts and payment links, where the provider handles the card data and you never touch it.

Never write a card number down, and never leave one in an email, a note or a customer record. Use the provider's saved-card feature if you need to charge the same customer repeatedly.