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Use Tide Card Reader Referral Code: TCRPOS & Get £100 FREE cash
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Card reader fee calculator

Work out the real monthly cost and effective rate of a UK card reader from your turnover, transaction count and card mix. Runs entirely in your browser.

Short answer

Short answer

A subscription plan only pays for itself once the saving on each transaction is bigger than the monthly fee. Enter a realistic trading month below and compare the effective rate, not the headline percentage.

Last checked 4 August 2026. Providers can change prices without notice; confirm current figures before you buy.

Run your numbers

Only the takings you expect to run through the card reader.

The number of separate card payments, not the value.

Optional. Leave at zero if nearly everything is a UK consumer debit card.

Plan you are costing

Pay As You Go monthly cost

£70.00

£70.00 processing + £0.00 subscription including VAT.

Effective rate

1.75%

Total monthly cost as a percentage of card turnover.

Annual estimate

£840

Twelve months at the same trading pattern.

Average sale

£20.00

Low average sales are hit hardest by the fixed pence-per-transaction fee.

Plan comparison at these figures

  • Pay As You Go£70.00 / month · 1.75%
  • Sell In-Person£63.19 / month · 1.58%
  • Sell In-Person Premium£57.59 / month · 1.44%

At this volume, Sell In-Person Premium is the cheaper of the two by £6.81 a month, before hardware. Hardware is a separate one-off cost.

Estimates only. Rates shown are for domestic consumer debit cards. Credit cards, commercial cards and non-UK cards commonly attract different, usually higher, fees. Check the current Tide fee schedule for the card types you actually accept.

Formulas and rate assumptions used in this calculator

Monthly processing = (turnover × plan percentage) + (transactions × fixed fee). The optional credit and commercial card share adds an indicative 0.4 percentage points to that portion of turnover, because published debit rates do not apply to those cards.

Subscription costs are shown including VAT at 20%. Processing fees are shown as charged. VAT-registered businesses can normally recover input VAT, so compare like with like for your own registration status.

  • Pay As You Go: 1.5% + 5p on domestic consumer debit cards, no subscription.
  • Sell In-Person: 0.89% + 3p on domestic consumer debit cards, £17.99 + VAT a month.
  • Sell In-Person Premium: 0.69% + 3p on domestic consumer debit cards, £19.99 + VAT a month.

Nothing you type here is stored or transmitted. Only the fact that the calculator was used is recorded, and only if you accepted analytics.

Keep reading

If a result surprises you, the explanation is usually in how card reader fees work — most often the fixed pence charge on low-value sales. Cash flow is a separate question, covered in settlement times.

Choosing between Tide plans specifically? Use the Tide plan calculator, and check the cashback tracker if a promotion is part of your decision. Provider-level differences are on the comparison page.

For the hardware behind the numbers see the card readers hub and the Tide Card Reader hub; for worked examples by trade, see business types.

Frequently asked questions

What is an effective rate?
Total monthly cost — processing fees plus any subscription including VAT — expressed as a percentage of card turnover. It is the only number that lets you compare plans fairly.
Why does average sale value matter so much?
The fixed pence-per-transaction fee is the same on a £3 coffee as on a £300 job. Low average sales push the effective rate up sharply, which is why transaction count is an input here.
Are these figures a quote?
No. They are indicative estimates based on published domestic consumer debit card rates. Credit, commercial and non-UK cards cost more. Confirm current pricing with the provider before you commit.

Tide Card Reader code TCRPOS — £100 cashback

Apply through the partner link, open an eligible new Tide account, purchase a Tide Card Reader and process at least £500 of reader transactions within the first 60 days. Terms and eligibility apply.

  1. 1Apply through the partner link so the promotion is attached to your application.
  2. 2Open an eligible new Tide business account and pass account approval.
  3. 3Order a Tide Card Reader and start taking payments once it arrives.
  4. 4Process at least £500 of reader transactions inside the 60-day window.
TCRPOS

Apply through the TCRPOS linkRead the offer conditions

Offer checked 13 October 2026. £100 cashback / £500 reader transactions / 60 days. Terms apply. Eligible new Tide applicants. Account approval and card reader product eligibility apply. Verified 13 October 2026 by Haley Duster against the official Tide offer page. Promotions can change or end at any time; Tide alone decides eligibility and payment.

Where to go next

Editorial Standards & E-E-A-T Disclosure

This site follows strict editorial guidelines to ensure accuracy, independence, and transparency. We are a UK-based research publisher, not a financial institution.

Lead Researcher
Haley Duster, editor of Payment Card Reader UK
Haley Duster

Editor and researcher, Payment Card Reader UK

Verification Dates
Published 4 August 2026
Last Fact-Checked 13 October 2026
Research Methodology & Basis
"Desk research against official provider documentation. No hands-on testing has been carried out at the time of writing."
Primary Sources & Evidence

Trust Signals

  • Independent ResearchWe are not owned by Tide. Our data comes from public fee schedules and regulatory filings.
  • Editorial IntegrityCommission never influences our findings. We recommend competitors when they are a better fit.
  • Accuracy GuaranteeWe log every correction. If you find an error, we aim to fix it within 24 trading hours.
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