Card machines for charities
None of the providers we checked publishes a charity-only rate, so a charity pays the same as a shop: 1.69% pay as you go at SumUp, or 1.59% + 10p per donation on a GoodBox donation device. What charities get that shops do not is HMRC money on top: contactless donations of £30 or less can earn a GASDS top-up of up to £2,000 a year with no Gift Aid declarations.
Fees from providers' own pages and rules from gov.uk, checked 1 November 2026.
Card payment machines for charity: the options
| Provider | What it is | Fee | Hardware | Gift Aid |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SumUp | General card reader (Solo Lite) or Tap to Pay on a phone | 1.69% pay as you go; no charity-specific pricing listed | Solo Lite £25 ex VAT; Tap to Pay £0 | Through partner apps: Give A Little, CollecTin and Payaz say they collect Gift Aid |
| Square | General card reader | 1.75% per in-person payment | Square Reader £19 + VAT | Not published on the reader page |
| GoodBox | Contactless donation devices built for charities (GBx Core, Mini, Flex, Podium, Countertop) | 1.59% + 10p per donation (0% when the donor covers the fee); sign-up free | Purchase, lease or hire; device prices not published on the pricing page | Not stated on the pricing page |
Provider names link to the page each figure was read from. GoodBox's device prices sit in a brochure rather than on its pricing page, so we have not quoted them.
What £5,000 a month of donations costs to collect
Take the house example as a charity: £5,000 a month in contactless donations at an average of £5, so 1,000 donations a month.
- SumUp: £5,000 × 1.69% = £84.50 a month, £1,014.00 a year
- Square: £5,000 × 1.75% = £87.50 a month, £1,050.00 a year
- GoodBox: £5,000 × 1.59% + 1,000 × 10p = £179.50 a month, £2,154.00 a year
GoodBox's lower percentage is outweighed by its 10p per donation at this gift size: it costs £95.00 a month more than SumUp, £1,140.00 a year, unless donors choose to cover the fee. Our view: use a cheap reader wherever a volunteer can hold it, and pay for a dedicated donation device only for unattended spots, where it raises money a handheld reader never would.
Gift Aid on card and contactless donations
Two HMRC routes, and they do not overlap. With a Gift Aid declaration, the charity claims 25p for every £1 donated; the donor must give a Gift Aid declaration and have paid at least as much Income Tax or Capital Gains Tax that tax year as the charity claims. Without declarations, the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme (GASDS) pays a top-up on small donations: each must be £30 or less, contactless counts from 6 April 2017, and the limit is a top-up of £2,000 on £8,000 of small donations a year, capped at the lower of £8,000 or ten times your Gift Aid donations.
On the example above every donation is under £30, so the charity can put £8,000 of them into a GASDS claim for £8,000 × 25% = £2,000 a year, as long as it also claims Gift Aid on at least £800 of declared donations that year (£8,000 ÷ 10). That top-up is more than a full year of SumUp fees (£1,014.00). Conditions: you must have claimed Gift Aid in the same tax year, have no Gift Aid or GASDS penalty in the current or previous tax year, keep the records produced by the contactless terminal, and claim within 2 years of the end of the tax year. Read the HMRC GASDS guidance before you claim.
Run a charity shop or café as well?
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Which kind of device for which kind of giving
- Bucket collections and events: a phone with Tap to Pay or a cheap reader. See taking card payments on your phone.
- Charity shops and cafés: a normal card machine, priced like any shop. Above a few thousand pounds a month a negotiated rate can beat the flat readers; our costs by turnover table shows where.
- Churches, museums and reception desks: an unattended donation device, where no volunteer is there to take a payment.
Already paying for a card machine in a charity shop? Send us a statement through the free statement review and we will say whether switching saves money or whether you should stay put.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a cheaper card machine rate for charities?
Not that we found. SumUp's charity page lists 1.69% pay as you go with no charity-specific pricing, and GoodBox, which builds donation devices for charities, charges 1.59% + 10p per donation (0% when the donor covers the fee). The saving available to charities is on the HMRC side, through Gift Aid and the Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme, not the card rate.
Can charities claim Gift Aid on contactless donations?
Yes, two ways. With a Gift Aid declaration the charity claims 25p for every £1 donated. Without one, contactless donations of £30 or less made from 6 April 2017 can go into a Gift Aid Small Donations Scheme claim, worth up to a top-up of £2,000 on £8,000 of small donations a year. HMRC says: "You do not need to know the identity of the donors or collect Gift Aid declarations."
What is the best card payment machine for a charity?
For a staffed stall or shop, a pay-as-you-go reader with no monthly fee: SumUp at 1.69% has no fixed fee per donation, which matters when most gifts are small. A dedicated donation box such as GoodBox makes sense for unattended spots where nobody can hold a reader, or where its donor-covers-the-fee option means the charity pays nothing.
What records do I need for a GASDS claim on contactless donations?
Keep the records produced by the contactless terminal. HMRC's conditions: you must have claimed Gift Aid in the same tax year, have no Gift Aid or GASDS penalty in the current or previous tax year, keep the records produced by the contactless terminal, and claim within 2 years of the end of the tax year. GASDS cannot be claimed on donations that come with a valid Gift Aid declaration.