Card reader / mobile POS · United Kingdom
Barclaycard Payments card processing fees: what a shop actually pays
On its cheapest published plan, Barclaycard Payments charges 1.60% (no flat fee stated) on a card taken in person. For a shop taking £5,000 a month on cards, that plan costs £80 a month — 1.62% of everything it takes once the monthly fee and the hardware are counted across three years. The shop keeps 98.38%.
The advertised 1.60% is close to what a shop of this size pays, because the only fixed cost is the £29 reader, spread over three years.
What does the provider publish?
Barclaycard Payments publishes the plans below on its own pricing page; the last column quotes the conditions in the provider's words.
| Plan | Monthly fee | Hardware | In person | Online or keyed | Effective at 5,000 a month | As published |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barclaycard Anywhere (pay as you go) | none ex VAT | £29 once | 1.60% (no flat fee stated) | not published | 1.62% | One-off reader fee GBP 29 + VAT, pay as you go, 1.6% per transaction. |
| Mobile card reader (monthly) | £10.00 ex VAT | not stated | not published | not published | — | GBP 10 + VAT per month over 18 months. Transaction costs are 'based on price plan'. |
UK providers do not publish on the same basis. Monthly fees and hardware are printed exactly as published, and where the provider states the basis we print it. At 20% VAT an ex-VAT fee is 1.2 times higher on the invoice, so an ex-VAT figure and an inc-VAT figure are not comparable as printed. We do not convert between them.
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Per-transaction fee: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
Online or keyed rate: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
Online per-transaction fee: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
Chargeback fee: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
What does it cost at the size of shop you actually are?
The same plan is a different price depending on how much goes through the card machine, because the fixed part does not move.
| Plan | £1,000 | £2,000 | £5,000 | £10,000 | £25,000 | £50,000 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barclaycard Anywhere (pay as you go) | 1.68% | 1.64% | 1.62% | 1.61% | 1.60% | 1.60% |
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How that is worked out
The average sale is an assumption of this site, not a published figure: $25.00 in the United States and £20.00 in the United Kingdom. It decides how heavily a per-transaction fee lands, so the calculator lets you change it. Interchange, chargebacks, refunds, currency conversion, sales tax and VAT are not in any figure on this site, because the pricing page does not price them for a given shop. Every figure here is a floor. The full method is at Method.
What is fixed and what moves with sales?
Barclaycard Payments publishes a percentage but no per-transaction fee. On Mobile card reader (monthly) the fixed part is £10.00 a month before a single card is tapped, which is 0.20% of card sales at £5,000 a month and 0.02% at £50,000. checked 2026-08-25
A percentage on its own says nothing about what a small shop pays. The monthly fee, the terminal and the per-transaction fee are fixed amounts, so they land hardest on the shops with the least card volume — which is the opposite of how the headline rate reads.
Who owns it?
Owned by Barclays. Source. checked 2026-08-25
Where this leaves you
- The hardware is a one-off £29, spread here across 36 months. If you expect to change provider within a year, treat it as a year's cost instead: £2.42 a month.
- No per-transaction fee is stated on the page. We compute as though there is none. If the provider quotes one later, every figure here rises, and a small average sale is where it would show first.
- If the effective rate is what matters, SumUp works out at 1.41% on the same basis — £364 less across three years at £5,000 a month — compare the two.
- Do not decide yet, but a quiet month will not change this one: the plan holds at 1.62% of sales whether the shop takes £5,000 or £50,000 a month, because there is no monthly fee to spread. Chargebacks, refunds and foreign cards are in neither figure — what the headline rate leaves out.
Who this page is not for
This is not a review. We have not used Barclaycard Payments, we hold no opinion on its hardware or its support, and nothing here is a recommendation. It answers one question: what the published price turns into as a share of card sales.
Sources
- Barclaycard Payments pricing page — every figure on this page. checked 2026-08-25
- Ownership source. checked 2026-08-25
- data.json — the row behind this page, with the source URL and check date on every figure.
Related
- Barclaycard Payments alternatives, by effective rate
- Every provider we hold, and which publish a rate
- Work out your own effective rate
- The three numbers behind a card rate: the fixed fee, the flat fee and the floor
- How these figures are produced
- Barclaycard Payments vs SumUp
- Barclaycard Payments vs myPOS
- Barclaycard Payments vs Square
Written by Kaz (pen name). Figures are copied from providers' published pricing pages on the dates shown. We have not used these products. Corrections: contact form.