Card Machine Fees for Cafés: Why Small Bills Cost More

A café pays to take cards in up to three ways: a percentage of each sale, sometimes a few pence on every payment, and any monthly charges. What makes cafés different is the size of the bill. With typical café baskets of around £3.50 to £8 ^[1], the pence-per-payment part and the monthly charges weigh far more heavily than they do for a restaurant taking £40 a table.

So the "lowest rate" on an advert isn't always the lowest bill for a café. Here's how each part works and how to find the pricing that actually suits the way you trade.

The three ways a café pays to take cards

1. A percentage of every sale

Most providers take a slice of each payment. The well-known pay-as-you-go readers charge a flat rate. At the time of writing (November 2026), that's 1.75% for UK cards in person with Square ^[2], and 1.69% with SumUp's pay-as-you-go plan ^[3]. Flat rates are simple. You know exactly what each sale costs.

2. A few pence on every payment

Some pricing adds a fixed amount per payment, often called an authorisation or transaction fee. These typically run from 1p to 3p per payment ^[4]. On a big bill you barely notice it. On a single small coffee it's a much bigger share of the sale.

3. Monthly charges

These include machine rental, subscription plans and minimum monthly charges. SumUp, for example, offers a subscription (at the time of writing, November 2026) at £19 a month with a 0.99% rate for eligible domestic consumer card payments, which it pitches at businesses taking £3,000 or more a month ^[3]. Corporate, premium and non-EEA cards do not qualify for that reduced consumer-card rate ^[3]. Some contracts also add a monthly minimum charge, typically £20 to £40 depending on turnover ^[4].

Why a small bill changes the maths

The pence part behaves very differently from the percentage. A percentage shrinks with the bill; a fixed fee doesn't.

Example: on a £4 coffee, a flat 1.75% costs 7p. An illustrative 0.9% plus 2p shape costs 5.6p (3.6p plus 2p). On a £2 tea, the flat 1.75% costs 3.5p while 0.9% plus 2p costs 3.8p. With these two shapes, the flat rate is lower on any sale under about £2.35, and the 0.9% plus 2p shape is lower above it.

This is a comparison of pricing shapes, not a quote for Solo; Solo now charges 1.25% without an authorisation fee.

That's why your average bill is the single most useful number to know before comparing card machines. If most of your sales are a single drink, pence-per-payment pricing hurts more. If customers typically buy a drink and something to eat, it matters less.

What a typical café month looks like

Example: a café takes £10,000 a month on card across 2,000 payments, an average bill of £5. Here's what different pricing shapes would cost that café in a month, including the stated monthly fees and minimums, before VAT and other charges. The SumUp subscription calculation assumes all payments qualify for its domestic consumer-card rate; premium, international and American Express cards can change the total ^[3].

Three things stand out. Monthly-fee plans can beat flat rates once your takings are steady. Per-payment pence add up fast when you take thousands of payments a month, so in the example they make up a big part of the myPOS figure. And the gap between debit and credit cards matters, so your card mix changes the answer.

Change the average bill, the number of payments or the card mix and the order can change too. There is no single best card machine for every café. There's only the best one for your numbers.

What's actually inside the percentage

Part of the processing cost is interchange, paid to the card issuer. For eligible domestic consumer-card transactions where the merchant, acquirer and card issuer are all in the UK, interchange is capped at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit ^[5]. Those caps do not limit the provider's total merchant service charge ^[5].

The cap applies to interchange, not to the provider's total price ^[5]. So anything a provider charges above those levels covers its other costs and its own margin. That's worth knowing when you ask for a better rate.

Charges to watch for in a café

• Minimum monthly charges. Some contracts carry one, typically £20 to £40 depending on turnover ^[4]. Seasonal cafés with quiet months should ask about this first.
• Per-payment fees. At 1p to 3p each ^[4], multiply by your monthly payment count to see the real cost.
• Contract exit fees. Ask how an early-exit charge is calculated and get the answer in writing before signing.
• Card-type differences. Credit cards often cost more than debit cards (even the interchange cap is higher for credit ^[5]), so ask for the rates on each.

You also can't pass card fees on to most customers. Since 13 January 2018 it has been unlawful in the UK to charge extra for paying with a consumer debit or credit card ^[6][7].

Your debit and credit mix changes the bill too: our guide to debit vs credit card fees shows how much.

Where TrustPOS options fit

TrustPOS offers three setups. Which one suits a café depends on its average bill, payment count and whether it wants a full till.

• Shift4 Solo: a free card machine with no monthly machine cost at 1.25% per transaction with no authorisation fee. It has a built-in 4G SIM, so no Wi-Fi is needed, subject to coverage. It suits new, seasonal or mobile cafés.
• myPOS Ultra: £20 a month plus VAT, with 0.32% plus 3p on debit cards and 0.62% plus 3p on credit cards. Payments settle instantly into your myPOS account, seven days a week, and a free business account is included. It suits established cafés with steady volume. Its card fees have a £20 monthly minimum: if the calculated fees are lower, you pay the difference.
• Shift4 Dine: a full till system for £39 a month plus VAT at 0.9% plus 2p per transaction, with next-day payments. We install it on-site with your menu already loaded.
• Dine agreement: 12 months, and leaving early costs the monthly rental for each month remaining, so we explain that before you sign.

Before you choose: a quick checklist

1. Work out your average bill. Divide last month's card takings by the number of card payments.
2. Count your payments. Multiply any pence-per-payment fee by that number.
3. Check your card mix. Find out roughly how much comes from debit versus credit cards.
4. Ask for every charge in writing, including minimum monthly charges and exit fees.
5. Compare the whole monthly cost on your real numbers, not the headline rate.

Use our guide to reading your card machine statement to find those figures. If you need a full till, start with restaurant till costs. The UK card-surcharge guide explains the rules on passing fees to customers.