Comparison
Accepting contactless payments: your bank, or SumUp and Square?
Your phone is now a card terminal. The question is whose software runs on it — and the answer turns almost entirely on one number nobody advertises: your average transaction size.
The short answer
Tide Tap to Pay
No per-transaction pence charge, which is what destroys small-ticket economics elsewhere. Money lands in your Tide account, though settlement takes three business days.
Monzo Tap to Pay
The lowest percentage of any option here, but a fixed 20p that only stops mattering as the sale gets bigger. Available on every Monzo plan including free.
Square or SumUp
Proper hardware, EPOS, inventory and reporting that no bank matches. SumUp is cheapest at volume; Square has the deepest platform.
The same payment, five different costs
Effective percentage taken by each provider at different sale values. Green is cheapest in that column.
| Provider | £3 | £5 | £10 | £20 | £50 | £100 | £250 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Monzo Tap to PayverifyPowered by Stripe, so Stripe’s pricing applies. iPhone and Android. Any Monzo plan. | 8.07% | 5.40% | 3.40% | 2.40% | 1.80% | 1.60% | 1.48% |
| Tide Tap to PayPowered by Adyen. iPhone and Android. No monthly fee. Settles in 3 business days. | 1.65% | 1.65% | 1.65% | 1.65% | 1.65% | 1.65% | 1.65% |
| SumUpverifyCard reader or Tap to Pay. Payments Plus at £19/mth drops eligible transactions to 0.99%. | 1.69% | 1.69% | 1.69% | 1.69% | 1.69% | 1.69% | 1.69% |
| SquareverifyFree Tap to Pay on phone, or readers from about £19. Deepest EPOS features. | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% |
| Zettle (PayPal)verifyFlat rate on all card types including Amex. Settles to a PayPal balance. | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% | 1.75% |
Rates marked verify come from secondary sources rather than the provider’s own published pricing. Tide’s 1.65% is confirmed on tide.co. Confirm any figure directly before signing up — card processing pricing changes frequently and often varies by card type.
The fixed fee is the whole story
Look along the top row of that table. Monzo’s Tap to Pay is powered by Stripe, and Stripe charges 1.4% plus 20p. That headline percentage is the lowest of any option here — and on a £3 coffee it takes 8.1%, nearly three times what Tide takes.
Flip it round. On a £250 invoice Monzo takes 1.48% while Zettle takes 1.75%. The same product is the cheapest and the most expensive option depending on nothing but ticket size.
The crossover points against Monzo:
- vs Tide at 1.65% — Monzo becomes cheaper above £80
- vs SumUp at 1.69% — above £69
- vs Square and Zettle at 1.75% — above £57
What your bank’s Tap to Pay actually gives you
The real argument for bank-native acceptance is not price. It is that the money arrives in the account you already use, categorised, in the same app, with no second dashboard and no reconciliation bridge.
Anyone who has run Square alongside a separate bank account knows the friction: takings land in a Square balance, get paid out in batches that do not match individual sales, and then have to be reconciled against a bank feed that shows lump sums. For an occasional seller that admin is worth more than a few basis points.
Monzo
Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, available on every plan including free Lite. Powered by Stripe, so the pricing is Stripe’s 1.4% plus 20p, with international cards charged considerably more. Because it runs through Stripe, expect a Stripe account in the background rather than a purely Monzo-native experience.
Tide
Tap to Pay on iPhone and Android, powered by Adyen, at a flat 1.65% with no initial or monthly fee. Tide states this covers domestic and international payments, and accepts Visa, Mastercard and American Express. The catch is settlement: three business days, which is slower than the specialists and a real consideration if cash flow is tight.
Revolut and others
Revolut offers Tap to Pay to business customers, and NatWest has its own acceptance arm. Coverage across the high street is patchy and several banks still route you to a separate merchant services contract with its own terms — which is a different product from tapping a phone.
When a specialist is the right answer
If card payments are your business rather than an occasional convenience, the calculation changes.
- SumUp — 1.69% in person, the lowest standard flat rate here. Its Payments Plus plan at £19 a month drops eligible transactions to 0.99%, which pays for itself above roughly £2,700 of monthly card takings. Its Solo and Terminal readers have built-in SIMs, so they work without a phone or wifi.
- Square — 1.75% in person, but the deepest platform: inventory, staff permissions, industry-specific EPOS, online checkout and a genuinely good free point-of-sale app. Instant payouts cost around 1.5%.
- Zettle — 1.75% flat on every card type including Amex, settling to a PayPal balance. The natural pick if you already run PayPal.
At real volume, none of these flat rates is competitive. Businesses taking tens of thousands a month should be looking at interchange-plus pricing from a merchant acquirer, where you pay the underlying scheme costs plus a transparent margin. A flat 1.75% is a convenience premium, and it stops being worth paying somewhere in the low tens of thousands per month.
The things that catch people out
- Settlement speed. Three business days at Tide against one to two at the specialists. Over a weekend that is a meaningful gap.
- Instant payout fees. Square charges around 1.5% to get your money now. Used habitually that doubles your cost of acceptance.
- Card type. Several published rates apply to domestic consumer debit cards only. Business cards, credit cards and international cards frequently cost more.
- Keyed-in payments. Taking a card number over the phone costs far more — roughly 2.5% to 2.75% — because the fraud risk sits with you.
- Where the money lands. Zettle settles to PayPal, Square to an external bank account, bank Tap to Pay into the account itself. That affects your books more than the rate does.
Our verdict
Occasional seller, small tickets, wants it simple: your bank’s Tap to Pay, and Tide’s flat 1.65% is the better structure of the two we have priced. No hardware, no second dashboard, money in the right account.
Occasional seller, larger tickets: Monzo, where 1.4% plus 20p becomes the cheapest option once sales clear about £80 — and it works on the free plan.
Retail or hospitality: a specialist. You need a till, a receipt printer, inventory and staff logins, and no bank offers those. SumUp for lowest cost, Square for the best platform.
High volume: stop using flat-rate providers and get quoted on interchange-plus.
And whichever you choose, remember the takings still have to land somewhere. If you are also handling cash, the account you settle into matters more than the acceptance rate — see best accounts for cash deposits and run the numbers on the true cost calculator.
Common questions
Do I need a card reader to accept payments?
No. Tap to Pay turns a compatible iPhone or Android phone into a contactless terminal — the customer holds their card or phone against yours. Monzo, Tide, Revolut, Square, SumUp and Zettle all offer it. You only need hardware if you want a fixed till, a customer-facing screen, or acceptance without a phone.
What is the cheapest way to take card payments?
It depends entirely on your average transaction. Monzo’s Stripe-powered pricing of 1.4% plus 20p is cheapest above roughly £80 a sale and among the most expensive below £20. Tide’s flat 1.65% with no fixed fee is cheaper for small tickets. Work out your average sale before comparing headline rates.
Is Tap to Pay safe?
Yes. Card numbers and PINs are not stored on your phone or on Apple’s servers — the transaction is encrypted through the device’s NFC hardware. It uses the same security model as Apple Pay and Google Pay in reverse.
How quickly do I get the money?
It varies more than the rates do. Tide settles Tap to Pay into your Tide account within three business days. Square and SumUp typically pay out in one to two. Zettle can be near-instant into a PayPal balance, then one to two days to your bank. Square charges around 1.5% for instant transfers.
Should I use my bank’s Tap to Pay or a separate provider?
If you take payments occasionally and want the money in your business account with no extra reconciliation, use your bank’s. If card payments are the core of your business, a specialist gives you better hardware, EPOS, inventory and reporting — and at volume, negotiated rates a bank will not match.
Is SumUp Payments Plus worth it?
It costs £19 a month and drops eligible transactions from 1.69% to 0.99% — a saving of 0.7%. That pays for itself above roughly £2,700 of monthly card takings. Below that you are paying for the privilege.