Last Updated on September 17, 2026
Most people pick a card reader on the price of the reader. That is the cheapest decision in the whole setup. A £15 gadget sits on top of a fee you pay on every sale for years, a payout schedule that decides when you can buy stock, and a support line you will need on the worst day of your trading year.
SumUp says more than 4 million businesses worldwide use it, and its readers are aimed squarely at market traders, cafes, barbers and mobile trades. This review looks past the reader and prices the whole thing: what it costs at your takings, where the money lands and when, what the free extras are actually worth, and which UK businesses should use it or skip it.
Every price and rule below was opened on SumUp’s own UK pages on 15 September 2026. Hardware prices were on offer at the time and will change. We have no affiliate relationship with SumUp and nothing on this page earns us money. How Whito makes money.
The short answer
SumUp is a strong choice for small UK businesses that take most of their money face to face and turn over less than about £10,000 a month on card. It charges 1.69% per in-person payment with no monthly fee, or 0.99% on UK debit and credit cards if you pay £19 a month for Payments Plus. Online payments through payment links, bookings and the online store cost 2.5%.
Its best feature is not the rate. It is the payout: money lands in the free SumUp Business Account by 7am the next day, including weekends and bank holidays. For a market stall or a Saturday-heavy cafe, that is worth more than a few basis points.
Its weak spots are online payments (2.5% is expensive next to Stripe), the fact that the business account is e-money rather than a bank, and support that many users say leans heavily on a chatbot.
What SumUp costs in the UK
| What you pay for | Pay as you go | Payments Plus |
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | £0 | £19 a month, or £189 a year |
| In person, UK debit and credit cards | 1.69% | 0.99% |
| In person, premium, international and American Express cards | 1.69% | 1.69% |
| In person, customer pays with a SumUp personal card | 0% | 0% |
| Online (payment links, bookings, online store) | 2.5% | 2.5% |
| Cash recorded in the app | No fee | No fee |
| Declined payments | No fee | No fee |
| Chargebacks | £10, non-refundable | £10, non-refundable |
| Extras | 24/7 priority support and free reader replacements come with Payments Plus. Free 7-day trial, cancel any time. | |
There is also a Tailored plan with custom rates and an account manager for businesses taking £10,000 or more a month. SumUp does not publish those rates, so you have to ask.
Three optional add-on plans sit on top:
- POS Plus, £39 a month plus VAT. Floor plans, barcode scanning and accounting sync for hospitality and retail.
- Business Account Plus, £15 a month including VAT. Up to three extra balances and three extra Mastercards, plus priority support.
- Invoices Plus, £8 a month plus VAT (SumUp’s invoicing page quotes the equivalent of £7 plus VAT a month on the annual plan). Custom invoice design, automation, and payment by transfer to any bank or in any currency.
No setup fees, no hardware rental and no monthly minimums. That matters: long terminal contracts with exit fees are the trap our EPOS cost guide warns about, and SumUp avoids it.
What it costs at your takings
The headline rate means nothing until you put your own number against it. Here is the monthly bill on in-person sales, assuming every card is a standard UK debit or credit card.
| Monthly card takings | Pay as you go (1.69%) | Payments Plus, monthly (0.99% + £19) | Payments Plus, annual (0.99% + £15.75) |
|---|---|---|---|
| £1,000 | £16.90 | £28.90 | £25.65 |
| £3,000 | £50.70 | £48.70 | £45.45 |
| £5,000 | £84.50 | £68.50 | £65.25 |
| £10,000 | £169.00 | £118.00 | £114.75 |
The break-even point. Payments Plus pays for itself at about £2,700 a month of UK debit and credit card takings on the monthly plan, or about £2,250 a month if you pay annually. Below that, pay as you go is cheaper.
The catch most comparisons miss. The 0.99% only applies to standard UK cards. Premium, international and American Express cards stay at 1.69% even on Payments Plus. If a fifth of your takings come on those cards, the monthly break-even moves up to roughly £3,400. A tourist-heavy cafe or a shop near an office full of corporate cards should check its card mix before paying for the plan. Your SumUp sales report shows it.
A full first year at £3,000 a month, including a Solo Lite reader at the offer price of £15 plus VAT: about £623 on pay as you go, £599 on Payments Plus monthly and £560 on Payments Plus annual. The gap is real but small. Payout timing and reliability will matter more to most owners than £60 a year.
For the same sums across Square, Zettle, Stripe, Dojo, Tide and Revolut, use the calculator on our UK payment processor comparison.
The card readers
| Option | Price (ex VAT) | What it is | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tap to Pay | £0 | Your iPhone or NFC Android phone (Android 11 or later) becomes the reader through the SumUp Business app. PIN entry on screen for larger payments. | Trying card payments, occasional sales, a backup on busy days |
| Solo Lite | £15 on offer, usually £25 (£18 inc VAT on offer) | Pairs with your phone. SumUp says a charge lasts about 1,000 transactions. | Market stalls, mobile trades, one-person businesses |
| Solo | £49 on offer, usually £79 (£58.80 inc VAT on offer) | Standalone touchscreen reader with built-in 4G SIM and free data, wifi, and an offline mode. Holds up to 50 catalogue items. About 300 transactions per charge. | Anyone who does not want their phone tied to the till |
| Terminal | £99 on offer, usually £135 (£118.80 inc VAT on offer) | Handheld POS with touchscreen, built-in receipt printer, dual wifi and a free SIM. Takes orders at the table and parks them for later payment. About 250 transactions per charge including printing. | Cafes, pubs, restaurants, busy counters |
All readers accept Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, V Pay, American Express, Discover, JCB, Diners Club, Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay. Hardware comes with a one-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee, and orders over £90 can be spread over up to 12 months. Standard delivery is two to three working days.
Which to buy. If you are not sure you will take enough card payments to justify any hardware, start with Tap to Pay for nothing. If your phone is also your sat nav, your camera and your music, spend the extra on a Solo so a flat phone battery does not stop you trading. Buy the Terminal only if a printed receipt or tableside ordering is part of how you serve people.
When the money arrives
This is where SumUp earns its place, and where the small print matters.
- Into the SumUp Business Account: by 7am the next day, every day, including weekends and bank holidays.
- Into your own bank account: one to two working days.
- International and premium cards such as JCB, Diners, UnionPay and Discover can take up to six working days to process and may arrive in a later payout.
- Bank holidays in Germany and the US can delay daily or weekly payouts to an external bank by one to three working days, because SumUp uses banks and card schemes based there. The Business Account route avoids this.
- Refunds can only be made if you have enough pending payouts to cover them. A quiet week after a busy one can leave you unable to refund on the spot.
The practical point: take Friday and Saturday money at a market and it is spendable on Sunday morning if it goes to the SumUp account. The same takings into a high street bank may not arrive until Tuesday. If you buy stock with last weekend’s cash, that difference is the whole reason to choose SumUp.
The Business Account: useful, but not a bank
The free SumUp Business Account comes with a UK account number and sort code, a physical and virtual Mastercard, free instant transfers, expense categorisation, CSV and PDF exports for your accountant, and built-in invoicing.
Two things every owner should understand before moving their money into it.
It is not FSCS protected. SumUp says plainly that it is not a bank. It is an electronic money institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (register number 900700, trading as SumUp Payments Limited). Your money is safeguarded, meaning it is held separately from SumUp’s own funds, but it is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme the way a bank deposit is.
It has limits. Card spending is capped at £15,000 per payment and per day. Cash withdrawals are capped at £500 each and £2,000 a day. Outgoing transfers are capped at £25,000 each, £50,000 a day and £150,000 a month. You can ask support to change them.
Our view: use it as a landing account for fast payouts, then move money you do not need this week into a bank account with FSCS cover. That keeps the speed without holding your whole cash reserve in e-money.
SumUp also offers Making Tax Digital for Income Tax filing from inside the dashboard, built with embedded accounting technology from Sage. SumUp describes it as free and HMRC-recognised. If you are a sole trader over the £50,000 threshold and your records are already simple, it could save you buying separate software. If you have an accountant, ask what they want you to use first. Our MTD software cost guide compares the paid options, including FreeAgent.
The free extras, and what they are worth
SumUp bundles a lot of software at no monthly cost. The honest way to judge it is by the fee each one attracts.
Payment Links (2.5%)
Create a link in the app and send it by WhatsApp, text, email or Instagram. No website needed, and every payment runs through 3D Secure 2. Good for deposits, phone orders and click-and-collect. On a £50 order you pay £1.25, against 95p on Stripe’s standard UK online rate. On a £500 job you pay £12.50.
Invoices (free for unlimited invoices and quotes)
Your logo and details go on automatically, VAT is calculated for you, and customers can pay by card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, bank transfer or cash. Card payments on an invoice carry the online rate. If a client will happily pay a large invoice by bank transfer, let them. That costs you nothing.
Bookings (free, 2.5% on payments)
An online booking page built for hair, beauty and wellness, with deposits, full prepayment, no-show fees, cancellation policies, email and SMS reminders, Google Calendar sync and a Book Now button for Instagram. No monthly fee and no commission on the booking itself. Next to a marketplace that takes a cut of every new client, this is a cheap way to run your own diary. Our Treatwell cost breakdown shows the difference.
Online Store (free, 2.5% on sales)
Templates, custom domains, discount codes, stock alerts, shipping and in-store pickup. Fine for a small catalogue or a business testing online sales. Once online becomes a serious share of revenue, the 2.5% rate is the reason to move to a dedicated platform with cheaper processing.
POS, Kiosk, Order and Pay, Gift Cards and Loyalty
The app includes point-of-sale features for free, with POS Plus at £39 a month plus VAT for floor plans, barcode scanning and accounting sync. SumUp also sells POS Pro, a fuller system for restaurants and multi-site retail with delivery app integrations and kitchen orders, priced by quote. We could not check POS Pro prices because SumUp does not publish them. Kiosk, QR Order and Pay, gift cards and loyalty are also listed as SumUp products; we have not priced them here.
Cash Advance
Offered by invitation, not application. To be considered you need verified identity, at least £800 a month in sales for three months or more, and use of several SumUp products. You pay a one-off fixed fee and repay as a share of daily card takings. Meeting the criteria does not guarantee an offer. As with any merchant cash advance, compare the fixed fee against a normal loan before you accept.
Which UK businesses SumUp helps most
Market traders, street food and pop-ups
The strongest fit. No monthly fee through the quiet months, a cheap phone-paired reader, a Solo with its own 4G SIM and offline mode for fields with bad signal, and weekend takings in the account by Sunday morning. If you trade seasonally, stay on pay as you go.
Mobile trades and home services
Plumbers, electricians, cleaners, dog groomers, window cleaners and mobile mechanics. Tap to Pay means no extra kit in the van, free invoices cover the paperwork, and payment links take deposits before you book a job. The one thing to watch is job size. A £1,500 boiler repair costs £25.35 on the reader and £37.50 by payment link. For big jobs, offer bank transfer as well and let the customer choose. See our industry guides for more on getting found and paid.
Hairdressers, barbers, nail and beauty businesses
Bookings with deposits and no-show fees is the standout here, because a missed appointment is money you already spent the hour on. Pair it with a Solo Lite at the chair. Our research on what a typical UK salon loses every year found no-shows are the biggest single leak, and we also compared SumUp’s rates there. For free ways to fill the diary, read free marketing for hairdressers.
Cafes, coffee shops and small food businesses
The Terminal prints receipts, takes orders at the table and parks them until the customer pays. Above about £2,700 a month in standard UK card takings, Payments Plus is worth it. Check your card mix first if you get a lot of tourists or corporate cards. Our cafe cost savings research puts card fees next to energy, rates and waste, and the cafe hub covers marketing.
Small independent shops
Free POS with a product catalogue, POS Plus for barcode scanning when your range grows, and a free online store to test selling online. Once you run several sites or need detailed stock control, get a POS Pro quote and compare it with the systems in our EPOS cost guide.
Sole traders and freelancers who get paid in person
Personal trainers, tutors, photographers and driving instructors. A free account, free invoices, Tap to Pay and MTD filing in one place means fewer apps and fewer logins. If most of your income arrives by bank transfer already, you may not need SumUp at all.
Seasonal and part-time businesses
Christmas markets, summer ice cream vans, festival traders and wedding suppliers. Pay as you go with no monthly fee is built for this. You pay nothing in the months you do not trade.
Who should look elsewhere
- Online-first businesses. At 2.5%, SumUp costs more online than Stripe’s standard 1.5% plus 20p on any order over £20 (Stripe rate checked 3 September 2026). Use SumUp at events and Stripe on the website if you need both.
- Businesses taking well over £10,000 a month on card. Ask SumUp for Tailored pricing, then get a quote for a negotiated merchant account. Flat rates stop being good value at this size.
- Invoice and retainer businesses. Direct Debit through GoCardless costs 1% plus 20p, capped at £4 on UK payments (checked 3 September 2026), which beats 2.5% on anything over £14.
- Anyone who wants their balance FSCS protected. Use a bank account as your main account and treat SumUp as a landing account.
- Businesses whose customers mostly pay on premium, business or overseas cards. Payments Plus saves much less for you, and those payouts can take longer.
- Owners who need a person on the phone fast. Priority support comes with Payments Plus. On the free plan, expect chat first.
What users say
On Trustpilot’s UK site, SumUp scored 4.2 out of 5 from 56,986 reviews when we checked on 15 September 2026. Trustpilot’s own summary of recent reviews says users praise the readers for being convenient, reliable and easy to set up, and like the fast payouts. The complaints it lists are long waits, automated chatbots and difficulty reaching a real person, plus a smaller number of cases involving delayed funds, missing transactions and repeated verification questions from support during account disputes.
Read those numbers with care. SumUp has a claimed profile and pays for a Trustpilot subscription, and Trustpilot says it does not fact-check reviews. They tell you the pattern, not the truth of any single story.
The risk worth planning for is the rare one: an account dispute when you need the money. SumUp’s general terms allow it to close an account with notice, or without notice where it sees a breach or a risk. Two sensible habits: complete every verification step on day one, and keep a second way to get paid, even if that is just your bank details on a card at the stall. If you try Payments Plus on its free seven-day trial, check in the app what happens when the trial ends and put a reminder in your calendar before day seven.
The Whito stage check
Start. Pay as you go with Tap to Pay or a Solo Lite. No monthly fee, no contract. Send payouts to the SumUp Business Account and sweep the surplus to your bank. Use the free invoices and payment links before you buy any other software.
Build. Once standard UK card takings pass about £2,700 a month, switch to Payments Plus, annually if your trade is steady. Add Bookings if you run appointments. Move to a Solo or Terminal when your phone becomes the bottleneck.
Scale. Past £10,000 a month, ask for Tailored pricing and compare it with a negotiated merchant account. If you run several sites, get a POS Pro quote alongside two rival systems. Move online sales to a cheaper online processor.
If customers cannot find you, the cheapest card fee in the country will not fix your takings. Our free Visibility Check shows whether Google and AI assistants can find and recommend your business.
How we checked this
Every fee, limit and hardware price above was read on SumUp’s UK website and support centre on 15 September 2026: the pricing page, the card reader pages, the Business Account, Tap to Pay, Invoices, Payment Links, Bookings and Online Store pages, and help articles on payouts, payout delays, chargebacks and Cash Advance. The regulatory status comes from SumUp’s own UK disclosure and its general terms. Cost examples are our own arithmetic on SumUp’s published rates and assume standard UK cards unless stated. Hardware offer prices were live on the day we checked and will change. Our full approach is on the review methodology page. Spotted something out of date? Email hello@whito.co.uk.
Common questions
How much does SumUp charge in the UK?
SumUp charges 1.69% on in-person card payments with no monthly fee. With Payments Plus at £19 a month or £189 a year, standard UK debit and credit cards drop to 0.99%, while premium, international and American Express cards stay at 1.69%. Online payments through payment links, bookings and the online store cost 2.5%. Payments made with a SumUp personal card cost 0%.
Is SumUp Payments Plus worth it?
Payments Plus pays for itself at about £2,700 a month of standard UK card takings on the £19 monthly plan, or about £2,250 a month on the £189 annual plan. If a large share of your customers pay with premium, business or overseas cards, the break-even point is higher, because those cards stay at 1.69%.
How fast does SumUp pay out?
Payouts reach the free SumUp Business Account by 7am the next day, including weekends and bank holidays. Payouts to an external bank account take one to two working days and can be delayed by German and US bank holidays. International and premium card payments can take up to six working days to process.
Is money in a SumUp Business Account protected?
SumUp is not a bank. SumUp Payments Limited is an electronic money institution authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority, register number 900700. Customer money is safeguarded in separate accounts, but it is not protected by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme.
Which SumUp card reader should a small business buy?
Tap to Pay is free and turns a compatible phone into a reader. The Solo Lite, £25 plus VAT at list price, pairs with a phone and suits market traders and mobile trades. The Solo, £79 plus VAT at list price, works on its own with a 4G SIM. The Terminal, £135 plus VAT at list price, adds a receipt printer and table ordering for cafes and restaurants. All three were on offer for less in September 2026.
Which UK businesses is SumUp best for?
SumUp suits small UK businesses that mostly take payments face to face and turn over less than about £10,000 a month on card: market traders, street food sellers, mobile trades, hairdressers and barbers, cafes, small shops and seasonal businesses. Online-first businesses and high-volume merchants usually pay less elsewhere.
The sharp takeaway
SumUp is not the cheapest processor on every sale. It is one of the simplest ways for a small UK business to take a card today and have the money tomorrow morning, weekends included. Pick it for that, keep your reserve in a real bank, check your card mix before paying for Plus, and never pay 2.5% on a large invoice a customer would happily settle by transfer.
