Card machine fees explained: calculate the full cost

Start with a complete month

Use the same month for card turnover and costs. Look for processing charges, terminal rental, additional device costs and other applicable payment fees. If invoices arrive separately, combine the relevant amounts. Use consistent VAT treatment.

A minimum monthly charge may be a floor rather than an extra fee on top of every transaction. Check how it works before adding it to a comparison. Avoid counting the same cost twice.

Why average transaction value matters

A hypothetical 3p transaction charge is 0.30% of a £10 sale, but 0.03% of a £100 sale. Two businesses with the same turnover can therefore pay different amounts when one has many more transactions.

Card mix matters too: domestic consumer cards, corporate cards, international cards and remote payments may have different charges. Use the rates in your own agreement, rather than assuming every sale qualifies for the lowest rate.

A worked example

Illustration only, not a takepayments quote: £20,000 monthly card sales at an assumed blended 0.8%, with 2,000 transactions at 3p each and £20 terminal rental. This simplified example excludes any other charges.

The total is £240, so the effective cost is £240 ÷ £20,000 × 100 = 1.20%. A proposal advertised at 0.8% would not have a total effective cost of 0.8% under these assumptions.

Separate price changes from changes in your business

Compare the line items before concluding that a provider raised its prices. The same rental can have a larger impact in a quiet month; a different card mix or more small payments can also change the effective percentage. Record the volume, number of billable requests and fixed costs for each period.

For a hypothetical business with £30 in monthly fixed costs, that fixed amount contributes 0.60 percentage points at £5,000 card turnover and 0.10 percentage points at £30,000. Those figures describe the fixed-cost effect only, before processing charges.

Take a useful next step

Use the statement guide to identify what belongs in the calculation, then compare complete written quotes. Where a charge is unclear, request its billing basis and quantity from the provider. An unexplained line deserves investigation; it does not automatically establish overcharging.

The free check lets you provide summary figures and choose whether to speak with Awais. You do not need to send statements or agree to a switch to use the calculation.

Choose the next check for your bill

Start with reading your processing statement. If pence charges are unclear, check authorisation fees and billable requests. For a monthly floor, distinguish the minimum from its actual top-up. Then compare complete written quotes using the same sales, card mix and VAT basis.

Do not add a fee breakdown to a total that already includes it. Where a processing minimum applies, add only the shortfall for the charges covered by that minimum. Keep one-off switching costs separate from ordinary recurring costs.

Your comparison checklist

Common questions