Lloyds Cardnet review and what a Lloyds card machine costs

What is Lloyds Cardnet?

Cardnet is Lloyds Bank's card acceptance service: it processes the card payments a business takes and pays the money into its bank account. Cardnet is a registered trademark of Lloyds Bank plc. You rent the card machine, sign a merchant agreement, and pay a quoted rate on every payment. Lloyds says Cardnet makes most sense if you take at least £1,000 a month in card payments.

Lloyds now sells two quite different things under its name. Cardnet is the full service with rented terminals and Clover tills. Lloyds Accept is a phone-first, pay as you go product for existing Lloyds and Bank of Scotland business customers. Lloyds Accept is two services: Lloyds provides the app and servicing portal, and Stripe provides payment processing and chargeback handling under a separate Stripe Connected Account Agreement, according to Lloyds' own Card Acceptance Services Terms.

Lloyds card machines and rental prices

Every Cardnet terminal is rented by the month, plus VAT, with the transaction fees on top. These are the prices on Lloyds' own pages.

Clover tills need software on top of the rental. Payments Plus is included; the paid packages are:

• Essentials: £6.99 + VAT a month (plus £6.99 + VAT per additional device)
• Register: £39.95 + VAT a month (plus £6.99 + VAT per additional device)
• Table service: £59.95 + VAT a month (plus £9.99 + VAT per additional device)

So a Clover Flex running the Register package costs £21 a month + VAT plus £39.95 + VAT, before a single card fee. If you are not VAT registered, add the 20% VAT you cannot reclaim: a Castles Saturn at £23 becomes £27.60 a month.

Lloyds Cardnet fees

Lloyds does not publish Cardnet transaction rates. What it does publish is the shape of the bill: a transaction fee on each card payment, varying by card type (for example Visa Debit or Mastercard Credit); an authorisation fee on each payment; and a £10 minimum monthly charge. It also lists extra charges whose amounts are not published:

• Card-not-present fee (for example a sale by phone)
• International card payments
• Payments made online or by link
• Refunds and chargebacks
• Payment Card Industry Data Security Services management
• Software subscription for some card readers
• Accessories such as a cash drawer or printer
• Accepting American Express

Lloyds' prices page does give two illustrations. A £100 sale on a UK Visa debit card, in store shows a 0.5% service charge plus a 3p authorisation fee, £0.53 in all. The same sale on a UK Mastercard credit card, online, by phone or by mail adds a 0.25% card-not-present charge and a £0.13 gateway fee, £0.91 in all. Lloyds says these examples are just to give you an idea of its charges and exclude card reader rental, so treat 0.5% as a floor for debit cards, not a rate you will be offered on credit or business cards.

Lloyds Accept fees

Lloyds Accept is the only Lloyds product with a full published price list, set out in the summary box the Payment Systems Regulator requires.

To apply you need a Lloyds Bank or Bank of Scotland business account, registered for online banking, with no existing Lloyds card payment product. Lloyds says it is most cost-effective under £100,000 a year of card turnover. You take payments with Tap to Pay on iPhone and Tap to Pay on Android, no reader needed, or add a reader bought outright. You can stop using Lloyds Accept at any time; Lloyds can end it on 90 days’ notice.

What Lloyds costs a £5,000 a month shop

Take the house example: a shop taking £5,000 a month on cards. We assume an average sale of £20, so 250 payments a month; that is an assumption, not a statistic, and it matters here because both Lloyds products charge per payment.

On Lloyds Accept

Against the benchmarks: £5,000 × 1.69% = £84.50, and £5,000 × 1.2% = £60.00, plus £15.00 for the Dojo Wired = £75.00 (SumUp checked 25 August 2026, Dojo November 2026). Lloyds Accept costs £40.50 a month more than SumUp, or £486.00 a year. The break-even is simple: 20p ÷ (1.69% − 1.5%) = £105.26. Only a business whose average card sale is above that, a furniture maker or a garage, say, pays less on Accept.

On full Lloyds Cardnet

Cardnet has no published rate, so the useful sum is the most a quote can be and still win. Rent a Castles Saturn at £23 a month and the card fees, including authorisation fees, must stay under:

When the quote arrives, multiply each card type's rate by your own mix, add the authorisation fee times your number of payments, then add the rental, any Clover software and the PCI charge. If the total is above £84.50 at £5,000 a month, a flat-rate reader is cheaper and you should not sign. Our free statement review does this sum for you from a real Cardnet statement.

Lloyds Cardnet contract and exit terms

Lloyds' FAQs say a joining fee covers set-up and includes a minimum 6-month agreement. Card machine rental is a separate agreement from your Cardnet merchant agreement, and Lloyds does not publish its term. Our exit fee table records what Lloyds publishes about leaving:

• Minimum term: Minimum 6 months: "Your joining fee covers setting up your account and includes a minimum 6-month agreement". Card machine rental is a separate agreement
• Exit fee: Not published
• Notice: Not published
• Hardware: Terminals are rented (£23/month Castles Saturn, £21/month Clover Flex, + VAT); return terms not published

One rule does apply. Lloyds Bank plc is among the 14 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. It covers merchants with annual card turnover of up to £10 million, on contracts signed from January 2023. An older Cardnet rental may still be inside a longer original term. Our guide to cancelling Lloyds Cardnet covers the steps, and Lloyds Accept has no exit fee at all.

Some businesses sign up through a sales agent rather than Lloyds direct. Handepay, for example, is an introducer for Lloyds Cardnet whose terminal hire runs on a separate Merchant Rentals contract (see our Handepay cancellation guide). Check which company your rental agreement is with before you give notice.

Lloyds Cardnet settlement and support

Within five working days of the transaction for sterling settlement; a faster settlement option costs extra. That is slow next to providers that pay the next working day, and it is the line we would push hardest on in a negotiation. Set-up takes up to 7 to 10 days from application once you have a business current account and have chosen a card machine. Lloyds says future price changes are notified at least two months before they take effect.

Lloyds Cardnet vs Dojo and the alternatives

The obvious comparison is a quote from an independent provider. Our Dojo vs Lloyds Cardnet page sets the two side by side. For businesses under £100,000 a year that want a published rate, SumUp (1.69%) and Square (1.75%) need no contract, and Lloyds Accept is the bank's own answer to them. Lloyds also supplies Clover tills, which our Clover review prices from Clover's side.

Stay put if your Cardnet bill already works out under 1.23% all in at your volume and you value having payments and banking in one place. Switching to save a few pounds a month is not worth an exit fee.