Bank card machines compared

Tyl by NatWest

Tyl is the only bank option with prices you can check before calling. Up to £50,000 a year of card payments: 1.39% + 5p on UK and European personal debit and credit cards, and 1.99% + 5p on business cards and international personal cards (Amex priced separately). A custom price above £50,000 a year. Terminals rent monthly:

• PAX A80 (countertop): £13.99 + VAT a month
• PAX A50 (pocket): £14.99 + VAT a month
• PAX A920 Pro (portable): £19.99 + VAT a month
• Tap to Pay: £0, transaction fees only

Tyl’s pricing page lists no minimum monthly service charge, and no extra charge for card-not-present payments, international cards, refunds or cancelling your contract. Its help centre, when we checked it on 1 November 2026, said tyl contradicts itself. Its pricing page lists "Cancelling your contract" among the things there is "no extra charge for"; its help centre still says "There may be a termination fee if you're ending your Tyl contract early". No amount is published. Get the exit position in writing. The 5p per sale matters: on a £5 sale it is 1% on its own. See Dojo vs Tyl and how to cancel Tyl.

Barclaycard Payments

Barclaycard publishes its terminal fees and contract lengths, not its rates:

• Barclaycard portable: £18 + VAT a month, 18 months, cancellation variable
• Barclaycard countertop: £16 + VAT a month, 18 months, cancellation variable
• Smartpay Touch: £29 + VAT a month, 12 months, cancellation £0
• Smartpay Anywhere: £29 + VAT one-off, no monthly fee, no contract, cancellation £0

Barclaycard’s representative example: a £50 in-person debit card payment at 0.7% plus a 3p authorisation fee, £0.38 in total. Leaving a reader early is priced per remaining month: £10 × two months left in your contract = £20 plus VAT (portable reader example). Next-day settlement for transactions before 7pm (9pm for countertop and portable readers), subject to approval. Barclaycard also offers up to £1,000 towards exit fees for new acquiring customers with annual card turnover under £6.5m, subject to eligibility. More in Dojo vs Barclaycard and how to cancel Barclaycard.

Lloyds Cardnet

Lloyds rents two terminals.

• Castles Saturn "Everyday card reader": £23 a month rental + VAT
• Clover Flex "Business management solution": £21 a month rental + VAT (optional 4G SIM £10 a month + VAT)

Rates are tailored per business (not published), with a £10 minimum monthly charge (pay as you go customers excepted). Lloyds’ own example: a £100 in-store Visa debit sale at a 0.5% service charge plus a 3p authorisation fee, £0.53 in total; Lloyds says these examples are "just to give you an idea". Card-not-present, international, online and refund transactions can carry extra fees; PCI DSS management and some software subscriptions are regular charges. Exit terms: not published. Lloyds’ "New to card payments" guide says a typical minimum term for the card machine agreement "can vary between 18 – 48 months", with a separate 6-month minimum on the merchant agreement. Read via the search index on 1 November 2026; the page returned "Service Unavailable" when we loaded it, and it may predate the PSR rule. See Dojo vs Lloyds Cardnet and how to cancel Lloyds Cardnet.

HSBC card machines (Global Payments)

HSBC does not run its own card machines: it introduces you to Global Payments, its payment technology partner, and your payment services agreement is with Global Payments or one of its group companies, while HSBC keeps your bank account. Next-working-day settlement for eligible businesses, subject to terms. Global Payments’ own terms, as we last checked them on 1 November 2026:

• Contract: The fixed term on your Service Schedule; if none is shown, an initial term of one year. Then renews automatically for successive one-year terms (Terms of Service cl.14.2).
• Exit fee: An early termination charge "at our sole discretion" (cl.14.4). Inside the first six months: £25 a month, "totalling no more than" £150. Cancelling after a notified price change: no additional fee "apart from any outstanding fees up to the date of closure".
• Hardware: Not published. GPUK LLP rents terminals under terminal rental agreements; a terminal supplied by another company may carry its own exit fees.

See Global Payments vs Dojo and how to cancel Global Payments.

The PSR rule covers three of these banks

Barclays Bank PLC, Lloyds Bank plc and GPUK LLP (Global Payments) are among the 14 providers the PSR directed in PSR PS22/2, Card-acquiring market remedies: final decision (October 2022). For merchants with annual card turnover of up to £10 million: 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. NatWest is not on that list. More on terminal hire in card machine leasing explained.

Worked example: the £5,000 a month shop

The house example takes £5,000 a month on cards, 250 sales at an assumed £20 average, with one pound in five on business or overseas cards.

Banks or independents?

The independents publish more. SumUp charges 1.69% with a reader you buy; Square and Zettle charge 1.75%; Dojo publishes 1.2% for businesses with annual card turnover below £100,000; Revolut charges 0.8% + 2p on UK personal cards. A bank makes sense if it quotes you under the ceilings above, or if a single relationship manager is worth paying for. Otherwise the bank badge is not a discount. Every published rate is in our card machine rates table.

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