Countertop POS for retail · United Kingdom
Elavon card processing fees: what a shop actually pays
On its cheapest published plan, Elavon charges 0.99% (no flat fee stated) on a card taken in person. For a shop taking £5,000 a month on cards, that plan costs £64 a month — 1.29% of everything it takes once the monthly fee and the hardware are counted across three years. The shop keeps 98.71%.
That is 0.30 percentage points above the advertised 0.99%. The difference is the £15.00 monthly fee.
What does the provider publish?
Elavon 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Standard processing | not published | not stated | from 2.60% + $0.10 | 2.90% | — | Published as a starting figure, not a rate, so it is not computed here. Starting at 2.60% + 10c per qualified swipe or chip transaction. No annual, batch or cancellation fees. |
| Start Simple | not published VAT basis not stated | £5 once | 1.75% (no flat fee stated) | not published | — | Elavon Mobile, GBP 5 one-off reader cost, 1.75% on Visa and Mastercard personal debit and credit. For GBP 0-40k turnover. Elavon publishes each plan against a stated annual turnover band. |
| Business Booster - Desk | £15.00 VAT basis not stated | not stated | 0.99% (no flat fee stated) | not published | 1.29% | Tetra Desk, GBP 15/month, 0.99% on Visa and Mastercard personal debit and credit. For GBP 40-200k turnover. Elavon publishes each plan against a stated annual turnover band. |
| Core All-in-one | £15.00 VAT basis not stated | not stated | 0.99% (no flat fee stated) | not published | 1.29% | Tetra Move, GBP 15/month covering terminal and gateway, 0.99% plus 16p per gateway transaction. Elavon publishes each plan against a stated annual turnover band. |
UK providers do not publish on the same basis.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).
Monthly fee: not stated in the provider's published pages (checked 2026-08-25).
VAT basis: 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).
Ownership: 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Business Booster - Desk | — | — | 1.29% | 1.14% | — | — |
| Core All-in-one | — | — | 1.29% | — | — | — |
Scroll sideways on a phone.
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?
Elavon publishes a percentage but no per-transaction fee. On Business Booster - Desk the fixed part is £15.00 a month before a single card is tapped, which is 0.30% of card sales at £5,000 a month and 0.03% 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?
Who owns this company is not stated on its own site, and we could not confirm it from a primary source. We have left it blank rather than repeat what other sites say.
Where this leaves you
- 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.
- The published plan runs for 12 months. What leaving early costs is not published, so it is not in any figure here.
- If the effective rate is what matters, Cardnet (Lloyds Bank) works out at 1.07% on the same basis — £396 less across three years at £5,000 a month — compare the two.
- Do not decide yet. The figures are floors from the pricing page; chargebacks, refunds and foreign cards are not in them — what the headline rate leaves out.
Who this page is not for
This is not a review. We have not used Elavon, 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
- Elavon pricing page — every figure on this page. checked 2026-08-25
- Elavon UK pricing page. checked 2026-08-25
- data.json — the row behind this page, with the source URL and check date on every figure.
Related
- Elavon 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
- Elavon vs Cardnet (Lloyds Bank)
- Elavon vs Dojo
- Elavon vs Epos Now
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.