Merchant services broker vs going direct: an honest comparison from a broker
Last updated: August 2026 · Rates checked: August 2026
Quick answer: going direct works well if you know the benchmark rates and enjoy negotiating; a broker or comparison service earns its keep by knowing those benchmarks cold and putting several providers in competition at once, paid by the provider so free to you. Before using any broker, including us, ask five questions: how many providers do you compare, who pays you, does any provider pay for placement, will you show the all-in cost, and are you regulated? Our answers to all five are on this page.
Declared interest first: MerchantSwitch is a merchant services introducer. We are paid a commission by providers when a business we introduce signs up, which means a page titled “broker vs direct” written by us starts life under suspicion. Fair enough. The honest response is not to pretend neutrality but to lay out where going direct genuinely wins, where an intermediary genuinely helps, and the questions that expose a bad broker, then answer those questions about ourselves in writing.
The case for going direct
Nothing a broker does is magic. Every rate we have ever obtained for a business was, by definition, a rate the provider was willing to offer. If you know that negotiated UK card processing runs 1.2% to 1.9% plus £10 to £60 a month in fixed fees, that pay-as-you-go readers charge a flat 1.69% to 1.75% with no monthly fee, and that the crossover between the two sits around £4,000 to £5,000 a month of card turnover, you hold most of the cards yourself. Gather three like-for-like quotes, insist on the all-in monthly cost in writing, play them against each other, and you will land somewhere sensible. Our rates table and the guide to negotiating card machine rates exist precisely so you can do this without us.
Going direct is also clearly right at the extremes. A market stall taking £1,000 a month should buy a flat-rate reader off the shelf and skip the conversation entirely. A chain with a finance director and £500,000 a month of card turnover can run its own tender and squeeze harder than any intermediary.
The case for a broker or comparison service
The honest argument for an intermediary is time and information, not secret rates. Most business owners will negotiate a merchant services contract perhaps five times in their working life; the person on the other side of the table does it daily. A decent broker levels that by knowing what each provider actually agrees to at each volume band, which fixed fees are waivable, and which contract clauses (auto-renewal windows, notice periods, terminal return charges) cost real money later, the ones catalogued in our hidden fees guide. And because the provider pays the commission, the service costs the business nothing. The catch is the obvious one: a commission-paid intermediary has an incentive to place you somewhere rather than nowhere, and possibly to place you where the commission is best. Which is why the questions below matter more than any marketing claim.
Side by side
| Going direct | Broker / comparison service | |
|---|---|---|
| Cost to you | Free, but your time | Free; provider pays commission on completion |
| Rate knowledge | Whatever you research yourself | Sees agreed deals across providers daily |
| Competitive tension | Only if you gather several quotes | Built in: providers quote against a panel |
| Conflict of interest | None | Commission-paid; probe it with the five questions |
| Contract small print | Your reading of it | Should flag exit fees, minimums, auto-renewal |
| Best for | Confident negotiators; very small or very large merchants | Owners short on time between the two extremes |
The five questions to ask any broker
These questions separate a comparison service from an advert with a comparison table on it. Ask them of anyone who offers to find you a deal, and walk away from vague answers.
- How many providers do you compare, and can I see the list?
- Who pays you, and when?
- Does any provider pay for a better position in your results?
- Will you show me the all-in monthly cost, not just the headline rate?
- Are you FCA regulated, and if not, why not?
Our answers to all five
1. The panel. Every provider we track is listed openly, with their published or typical pricing, on our card machine rates page and in our provider profiles. If a provider is not there, we do not compare them, and you can see exactly who is.
2. Who pays us. Providers do. We are an introducer: when a business we introduce signs with a provider, that provider pays us a commission. The service is free to the business, with no fee at any stage. We would rather you know this from us than suspect it quietly.
3. Paid placement. No provider pays for placement in our comparisons or rates tables. Rankings and verdicts come from the published figures and our own checks, and the same rates data is shown whether or not a provider converts well for us.
4. All-in cost. Yes, always. Comparing headline percentages is how businesses end up with the surprises documented in our hidden fees guide. Any comparison we run at your volume includes monthly fees, PCI, terminal rental and contract terms, so you can compute the effective rate the way our statement-reading guide describes.
5. Regulation. We are not FCA regulated, because introducing businesses to card payment providers is not a regulated activity in the UK, and we will not imply a badge we do not hold. What we offer instead is verifiability: published rates checked and dated (August 2026), a public methodology, and a standing invitation to email corrections if any figure is out of date.
The honest answer
If you have the appetite and the benchmarks, go direct; everything you need is published on this site and we genuinely will not be offended. If you would rather spend the afternoon running your business, let a comparison service carry the negotiation, but make it earn your trust with the five questions first. The worst outcome is neither route: it is signing the first quote that lands, at the top of the 1.2% to 1.9% range with £60 of monthly extras, and not looking at the statement again until renewal.
Put us to the test
Tell us your monthly card turnover and we will run the comparison at your volume, all-in costs included. Free to you, paid by the provider only if you switch, and if going direct or staying put is your better move, we will say so.
Frequently asked questions
Do merchant services brokers charge the business anything?
Reputable ones do not. The broker is paid a commission by the provider when a match completes, so the service is free to the business. That is also why you should ask any broker who pays them and whether any provider pays for a better position in the results; if placement is for sale, the comparison is an advert.
Are merchant services brokers FCA regulated?
Generally no, because introducing businesses to card payment providers is not itself a regulated activity in the UK. MerchantSwitch is not FCA regulated. That makes your own diligence matter more, which is exactly why we publish our rates data, our methodology and how we are paid.
Will I get a better rate through a broker than going direct?
Not automatically. A provider can quote you its best rate directly if you push hard enough. What a broker changes is the information balance: knowing that negotiated UK pricing runs 1.2% to 1.9% plus £10 to £60 a month, and putting several providers in competition at once, tends to get to the sharp end of that range faster than one business negotiating alone.
When is going direct the better choice?
When you enjoy negotiating, know the benchmark rates for your volume, and have the time to gather three or more like-for-like quotes including every fixed fee. Very large merchants with dedicated finance teams, and very small ones best served by a flat-rate 1.75% reader they can buy off the shelf, both have less need of an intermediary.