Put them side by side and only one number is comparable. Here is how to read the rest.
Ask three merchant services companies for a rate and you get three percentages. None of them is the amount that leaves your account. The percentage is the part they have made look small. Underneath it sits a monthly PCI fee that lands whether you use the machine or not, and it is rarely on the front page of the quote.
Not one of these five publishes a standard rate card on its own website. You have to book a call to find out. The figures below are what independent comparison sites report they charge on top of the percentage.
Figures reported by the independent comparison sites Merchant Savvy and Compare Card Fees, checked on 25 August 2026. Fees change and every account is quoted individually, so check the current position with each provider before you sign anything.
Every card payment carries a wholesale cost set by the card schemes, called interchange. UK consumer debit interchange is capped at 0.20% for every provider, ours included, so any all in headline below that is leaving something out. On interchange plus you see the wholesale cost and the markup as two numbers. When interchange falls, your cost falls. On a flat rate the provider keeps the difference.
Shift4 payment infrastructure
$200B+
Dino Sura at Burger and Lobster is on film, by name, at his own venue. So are a Greene King pub and Red Dog Saloon. The infrastructure is Shift4’s. The UK company you deal with, and the person who installs your terminal, is ours.
No PCI fee
No terminal rental and no subscription on the terminal. The card machine is free hardware with free setup and £0 upfront, installed face to face.
Our markup on card processing
from +0.1%
Interchange plus 0.1% is our lowest markup, available on individually quoted accounts over £60,000 monthly card turnover. Your rate depends on your turnover and card mix, and we will quote it before you commit to anything.
We do not publish a rate table, because a table has to assume your card mix, your average transaction and your turnover, and it would be wrong for most venues reading it. Send three months of statements and you get your own number in writing.
A deposit or an invoice paid from a phone, without anyone reading a card number down the line.
Run the payments through SkyTab POS, from £39 a month, and the till and the card machine report as one.
It is free. Free hardware, free setup and £0 upfront, with no subscription for the terminal and no rental charge either. You pay for the card payments you process, and that is the only place we make money on the account. There is no PCI fee hiding behind it.
Interchange is the wholesale cost the card schemes charge on every payment. On interchange plus you see that cost and the markup your provider adds as two separate numbers, so when interchange falls your cost falls. A flat rate rolls both into one number and the provider keeps the difference. We quote on interchange plus.
It is a monthly charge many providers add for card data security compliance, and on most tariffs it rises if you miss a compliance questionnaire. Published figures for the providers named on this page run from £2.50 to £6 a month, with non compliance charges up to £30. We do not charge it.
Three months of card processing statements, your venue type and your monthly card turnover. From that we can show you what you are paying now, line by line, and what you would pay with us. You get the comparison in writing before you commit to anything.
We quote on interchange plus, with our markup from +0.1%. Interchange plus 0.1% is our lowest markup, available on individually quoted accounts over £60,000 monthly card turnover. Your rate depends on your turnover and card mix, and we will quote it before you commit to anything.
Three months of card statements is all it takes. You get your own rate in writing, with every fee named, before you commit to anything.
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