takepayments Review: The Best Payment Solution for UK Businesses?

The results are in, and in our opinion, takepayments is one of the best payment processing and merchant account providers for UK small businesses.

We got hands on with takepayments – testing its card machine, EPOS system, and overall service – to give you an honest assessment. Our take? takepayments offers great value for money thanks to its custom pricing model, and since it provides a variety of products, from ergonomic card machines, to virtual terminals, to EPOS systems, it’s a one-stop-shop for small businesses.

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What Does takepayments Offer?

takepayments is a UK-based merchant services and payment solutions provider, that’s been around for 25 years.

It helps businesses accept cashless payments by providing a card processing service, enabled by technology, such as card machines, online payment gateways, EPOS systems, and more.

takepayments, like most modern merchant services providers, offer a range of services to facilitate cashless payments. Here’s a summary of what it offers:

takepayments’s Pros and Cons

✔️Pros

• Flexible and competitive pricing structure: takepayments offers tailored pricing to businesses, from account fees to transaction fees and more. This pricing model means you can negotiate a price that suits your budget, and access competitive rates.
• Great range of card machines: takepayments offers three card machines, two with 4G connectivity, and one that doubles as a mini EPOS device. All have a touchscreen, built-in receipt printer, and can accept a wide variety of payments, making them extremely versatile.
• Next-day fund transfers: takepayments promises next day fund transfers, which is a big advantage if your business relies on fast cash turnover.
• Attentive customer service team: takepayments’ customer service team operates seven days a week, outside the standard 9-5 hours, and is available to customers for advice on anything from PCI compliance to fixing everyday glitches. They can be contacted several different ways, from live chat, phone, or WhatsApp, giving customers extra flexibility.

❌ Cons

• Requires a minimum 12 month contract: takepayments requires merchants to enter into a 12-month contract to use their payment services, which means that if you don’t like their product, it’ll be difficult to switch after a few months. For businesses that want flexibility, a zero-contract merchant account provider is a better option.
• Monthly fees can add up: takepayments charges separate monthly fees for a variety of products, such as card machine rental, and account fees. If you opt for more products, like an online payment gateway, or an EPOS terminal, these fees can add up to a hefty monthly sum. Some competitors offer these products for free, and make up for it with slightly higher transaction fees, which might be better for businesses with a low transaction volume.
• Charges an early termination fee: if you do choose to cancel your contract early with takepayments, you’ll be charged an early exit fee, which can add to the overall expense of changing providers.

How Much Does takepayments Cost?

takepayments’ pricing is bespoke, so you’ll need to request a quote to know your exact PDQ machine costs and software charges.

The provider prides itself on offering flexible and competitive pricing that’s adapted to the needs of each business. However, we recommend you compare your takepayments quote with quotes from other providers to ensure you really are getting the best deal.

Here’s an overview of the different fees and charges you can expect from takepayments:

• Basic account fees (£0-£20/month)
  • takepayments doesn’t advertise its account management fee, since pricing is bespoke. But, from testimonies, you can expect to pay anywhere from £0 to £20 per month to maintain your takepayments account.
• Merchant account fees (variable)
  • takepayments provides merchant account services through its partnered “acquiring banks”, which are Barclays, Elavon, and CashFlows, so your merchant account fees will depend on your chosen bank. Generally, small businesses won’t be subject to any fees.
• Card machine rental fees (from £25/month)
  • takepayment’s card machine rental fees start at £25 per month for its takepaymentsplus card machine, its most popular model.
• Transaction fees (0.3%-2.5% + flat fee)
  • Transaction fees are customised with takepayments, and vary depending on the card type and your business’s sales volume. You can expect to pay anything from 0.3% to 2.5% per transaction, with fees going down the higher your transaction volume is.
• Online and remote payment fees (custom)
  • If you’re selling products remotely, online or over the phone, you’ll be charged a fee to maintain an online payment gateway or virtual terminal. Once again, this fee will depend on the type of payments you’re accepting (pay-by-link, app, online store, invoice, etc.). Transaction fees for these types of “card-not-present” transactions are usually higher than in-person payment fees, which is standard across the industry.
• PCI compliance fee (optional) 
  • takepayments doesn’t charge a mandatory fee for PCI compliance, but they do offer to help you stay compliant, which may incur a fee depending on the level of support you require.
• Early termination fee (variable)
  • takepayments’ contract length is 12 months, which is quite standard, and they do charge a fee if you choose to end your contract early. How much you’ll pay depends on the terms of your contract, but it’s typically the equivalent of buying out the rest of your contract.

Is takepayments good value for money?

takepayments is generally good value for money, especially for small businesses.

Reading about all the possible fees you could incur might have you doubting this, but based on our research, it holds a firm middle ground when it comes to costs. When we compared takepayments average pricing to similar contract-based competitors, we found that it was generally cheaper than Worldpay, but more expensive than Clover.

For a lower price, takepayments offers better quality card machines than Worldpay (they’re easier to use and more lightweight), and has an extremely attentive and available customer service, making it a good value investment.

What are takepayments’ Card Machines Like?

takepayments offers three modern card machines with a sleek design and touchscreen. Here are their key features:

• takepaymentsplus: mini handheld EPOS device with touchscreen, built-in receipt printer, and Wifi connectivity.
• A920Pro: touchscreen card reader for in-person payments with built-in receipt printer, and Wifi, 4G, and Bluetooth connectivity.
• DX8000: touchscreen card reader for in-person and remote payments, with built-in receipt printer, and Wifi and 4G connectivity.

The A920Pro and DX8000 are traditional card machines that can only be used to process transactions, with the difference being that the DX8000 can accept remote payments, and pre-authorised payments.

We tested the takepaymentsplus, takepayments’ proprietary card machine. We were impressed by its sleek design and light weight, despite its size, and loved the fact that, besides being able to process card payments, it possesses the qualities of a basic EPOS system. The takepaymentsplus’ features include:

• Logging cash payments: simply enter a transaction as normal, and indicate that the customer is paying cash.
• Storing product information: you can log products in the device, with preset prices for easy checkout. Plus, you can sort them into categories, and see when stock levels are low.
• Accessing reports: you can access sales reports on the device, and see a breakdown on sales, filtered by date.

What Remote Payment Solutions Does takepayments Offer?

Besides traditional in-person card payments, takepayments offers merchants a variety of ways to accept remote payments, including:

• Online payment gateway: takepayments’ online payment gateway integrates with over 50 virtual shopping carts, and can be customised to match your business’s branding. Besides card payments, it also accepts payments via PayPal, to give customers more flexibility.
• Virtual terminal/phone payments: virtual terminals are designed for over-the-phone payments. They’re different from online gateways, since you, the merchant, will be accessing the terminal to enter the card information given to you by the customer. takepayments’ virtual terminal page can be accessed via desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
• Pay by link: takepayments’ pay-by-link service is a way to send electronic invoices to customers via an email link. Customers just need to click on the link, and will be taken to a secure payment page. The pay-by-link gateway accepts all major cards, as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• QR code payments: if you’re a hospitality business, takepayments allows you to set up QR codes for customers to scan. They’ll be taken to a menu page, where they can place and pay for their order.
• Payment app: takepayments offers a payment app called beepaidGo, from which you can create invoices, and send them to the customer via text or email. They’ll receive a payment link to a secure payment page.

Are takepayments’ remote payment solutions worth it?

Whether takepayments’ remote payment solutions are worth it depends on your business model.

takepayments offers a wider variety of ways to take payments than most competitors. For example, Tide and Stripe don’t offer a virtual terminal for over the phone payments. This makes takepayments a good option for businesses that need this tool.

However, if your business only requires one or two types of remote payments, such as in-person and online, you might find a cheaper and better service somewhere else. That’s because takepayments charges a monthly fee for most of its remote payment services.

Likewise, if your business is ecommerce focused, but also sells in-person, we don’t recommend takepayments. Instead, you should choose a provider that specialises in ecommerce, and offers online store building alongside online payment processing, such as Square, SumUp, which have free online store builders. Shopify is another consideration if you have big retail ambitions.

However, if you’re an appointments-based business, a trade person, or a small retail store or cafe, we recommend takepayments. You’ll be able to offer customers a variety of ways to pay, from in-person, to over-the-phone, to via electronic invoice, which can increase the likelihood of sale, and incentivise repeat customers.

Having all your different payment processing services managed by the same provider will also make your life easier from a management perspective.

Are takepayments’ EPOS Systems Any Good?

takepayments offers two EPOS systems – one for retail, and one for hospitality. While not the most advanced EPOS systems on the market, they’re an affordable solution for small businesses, and integrate seamlessly with takepayments’ payment processing services.

Hardware and software fees are bundled into one package, and takepayments offers two hardware kits:

• tPOS counter: a tablet terminal with a 12.5-inch touchscreen with a built-in customer display screen, along with the takepaymentsplus card machine.
• tPOS complete: a large countertop terminal with 15.6 inch touchscreen with a built-in customer display screen and receipt printer, along with the takepaymentsplus card machine.

Prices vary depending on whether you select a retail or hospitality EPOS system:

Both options also entail a £250 + VAT setup fee.

takepayments is far from the only merchant services provider to also offer an EPOS solution, with competitor Square offering free EPOS software, and only charging a one-off fee for hardware. Square’s EPOS system offers better value for money than takepayments’ and is easier to use, earning top spot in our ranking of the best EPOS systems.

The pros of the EPOS system takepayments offers for hospitality are its ability to allow for bookings and employee time keeping, which are often add-on features in competitor EPOS systems, like Square. Meanwhile, takepayments’ retail EPOS system accepts an unlimited number of users, a bonus if you have a high number of staff on a part-time basis.

Does takepayments Offer Good Customer Support?

takepayments offer good customer support overall. Its customer support team is very available, and customers can contact them through various channels.

takepayments’ customer service team is available seven days a week, from 8 am to 7 pm Monday to Friday, 8 am to 6 pm Saturday, and 9 am to 5 pm Sunday and Bank Holidays. Customers can get advice on anything from PCI compliance to fixing everyday glitches.

Customer support channels include:

• Phone
• Live chat
• WhatsApp
• Knowledge centre (for DIY help)

Some of takepayments’ competitors offer 24/7 support, such as Worldpay and Barclaycard, but takepayments maintains a competitive edge by offering weekend support, which many competitors, such as Square and SumUp, don’t do. This is especially true since the weekend is likely to be the busiest time for many small retail, services, and food businesses.

What Kind of Business is takepayments Best For?

takepayments is undoubtedly best for small businesses, and markets itself as such, so it’s reassuring to see they know their niche.

That said, not all small businesses are ideal candidates for takepayments. Here’s a summary of who’s best suited to takepayments:

Who should choose takepayments?

If your small business is well-established, and receives a lot of card paying customers, then takepayments is a great option, since you’ll be able to negotiate low transaction fees. If you run a retail or restaurant business, you’ll also benefit from takepayments’ EPOS system.

takepayments is also a good option for appointments-based businesses and trades people, since it offers a variety of remote payment methods to suit your customers’ diverse preferences.

Who might want to consider alternatives?

If you’re a new business that still has a low number of card paying clients, or your business is highly seasonal, you might be better off with a zero-contract provider like Square or Tide. These providers offer more flexibility, since you can cancel anytime at no extra cost, they don’t have fixed monthly fees, and their slightly higher fixed transaction rates won’t affect your bottom line as much.

Same goes if your business has a heavy focus on online selling. While takepayments does offer an online payment gateway, it’ll be cheaper, and easier to track sales across channels with a provider that specialises in ecommerce and card processing, like Square, SumUp, or Shopify. These providers offer online store builders, and tools and support for online retailers, such as integrated shipping.

How Does takepayments Compare to Its Competitors?

Let’s take a look at how takepayments squares off against the competition:

Worldpay

Although it’s hard to compare the pricing of providers that offer custom price plans, based on our research, we can tell you that overall, takepayments is less expensive than Wordlpay especially when it comes to transaction fees and monthly account fees. takepayments offers some of the lowest transaction fees on the market to merchants with high sales volumes, and often doesn’t charge an account fee.

However, Wordpay does have more advanced management and reporting tools that takepayments, and is a better choice for ambitious businesses.

Barclaycard

takepayments transaction fees are also generally cheaper than Barclaycard’s. That said, unlike takepayments, Barclaycard offers fixed and custom transaction fees based on business turnover, which means it suits a wider variety of businesses than takepayments.

Barclaycard, being a part of Barclays, is a good option for businesses that want a singular provider for payment processing and business banking. Barclays is also among the list of acquiring banks that takepayments asks businesses to open an account with, so you could just skip takepayments and go straight to them for simplicity’s sake.

Tyl by Natwest

Tyl by Natwest offers the cheapest rental card machines, starting at £9.99 per month, but they aren’t as advanced as the takepaymentsplus, which starts at £25 per month. It’s still a cheap option for small businesses who feel safer using a bank as their payment processor, but it doesn’t offer competitive transaction fees, with rates fixed at 1.39%, unless you’re a high volume seller.

Square

Square is a different beast altogether. It’s the only zero-contract provider in this table, and as such has zero monthly account fees, zero card rental fees (it sells them outright) and fixed transaction rates.

Square is designed to get merchants up and running quickly, and is favoured by merchants who sell online as well as in-person, since it offers a free online store builder. Its transaction fees are a little higher than competitors’, at 1.75%, so on that front you’ll get a better deal with takepayments if you have a high in-person sales volume.

How Did We Test and Review takepayments?