EVO Payments review UK, from its own contract

What is EVO Payments?

EVO Payments UK is a card acquirer: it processes card payments for UK businesses, rents them the card machines and pays the takings into their bank account. The UK company is EVO Payments UK Ltd (Companies House 13527680), authorised and regulated by the FCA under the Payment Services Regulations 2017 (FRN 959332), and under the Consumer Credit Act (FRN 966552) for terminal rentals, according to its own agreement.

EVO has changed hands. EVO's own site says it "officially" joined Global Payments and is "transitioning to the Global Payments brand"; EVO Payments UK Ltd lists Global Payments as a trading name. In practice an existing EVO customer should expect Global Payments branding to replace EVO's. Our Global Payments review covers Global Payments' own UK offer.

EVO Payments fees and plans

EVO prices in two ways. Ready Made: packaged monthly plans for businesses with monthly card payments of £9,000 or less. Tailor Made: quoted pricing for every other business. You can move up or down between Ready Made packages; a change takes about 5 working days and starts from the next monthly billing period.

What EVO costs a £5,000 a month shop

The house shop takes £5,000 a month on cards, comfortably inside the Ready Made ceiling (£4,000 of headroom). Because we could not verify EVO's bundle prices, the useful test is what the bundle has to beat. These are the published alternatives for the same £5,000:

• £5,000 × 1.69% = £84.50, no contract
• Square: £5,000 × 1.75% = £87.50, no contract
• £5,000 × 1.2% = £60.00, plus £15.00 for the Dojo Wired = £75.00

So if a Ready Made quote, rental and card fees together, comes to more than £84.50 a month, SumUp is cheaper and has no exit fee. If it comes in under £75.00, it beats Dojo with a rented terminal as well. On a Tailor Made quote, divide the monthly total by £5,000: anything above 1.69% all in is dearer than a flat-rate reader. Our free statement review works this out from a real EVO statement.

EVO Payments contract and exit fees

This is the part to read twice. The Payment Acceptance Agreement sets the term: the fixed term in your Customer Summary; if none is given, 1 year. Then automatic 1-year renewals. Leaving early on a Ready Made plan costs £150, and on any plan you owe the terminal rental to the end of the term.

A worked example, with an illustrative rental because EVO does not publish one: say your rental is £20 a month and 8 months of the term remain. Leaving now costs £150 + (8 × £20) = £310.00. Put your own rental and months into the same sum before you give notice. Then take the monthly saving a new provider would give you (your whole EVO bill, rental included, minus the new bill) and multiply it by the months left. If that is less than the exit cost, waiting for the term to end is cheaper.

Three more clauses matter. EVO can change your fees on at least two months’ written notice; you are deemed to accept unless you object before the change, and objecting counts as notice to terminate, so a price rise is a free exit window if you act before it starts. EVO may terminate immediately if you submit no payment transactions for three consecutive weeks. And after you leave, you must keep a bank account and Direct Debit open for EVO to collect any amounts owed (such as chargebacks) for at least 13 months after your last transaction.

EVO Payments International GmbH, Branch UK is one of the providers named in PSR PS22/2, Card-acquiring market remedies: final decision (October 2022), which says terminal lease and rental contracts must have an initial minimum term of no more than 18 months, then move to rolling renewal terms of no more than 31 calendar days, for merchants with annual card turnover of up to £10 million on contracts signed from January 2023. Our guide to cancelling EVO Payments takes you through notice and the terminal return step by step.

EVO Payments settlement and support

Next day for Visa and Mastercard, if the terminal’s end of day batch runs before midnight (terminals batch automatically at midnight); Friday and weekend takings settle on Monday. That is a genuine strength: Lloyds Cardnet, for comparison, says within five working days of the transaction for sterling settlement. On Interchange Plus Plus pricing, changes in card scheme fees are passed straight on and do not count as a contract change; EVO aims to give two months’ notice.

Some businesses sign up to EVO through a sales agent rather than direct. Handepay, for example, is an introducer for EVO Payments UK, and its terminal hire runs through Merchant Rentals Limited on a separate contract. If that is you, your rental exit terms sit with the rental company, not EVO; our Handepay cancellation guide covers it.

EVO Payments vs Dojo and Global Payments

Our Dojo vs EVO comparison puts the two side by side, and Global Payments vs Dojo covers the brand EVO is moving to. If you leave EVO for Global Payments itself, check that you are signing a new agreement rather than simply being moved, and read our Global Payments cancellation guide for what that contract says.