Takepayments provides the UK’s small businesses with card machines, e-payments, and card processing services.
Having served over 60,000 retailers, it has quickly become one of the most popular card payment services in the UK.
For more than two decades, the business has operated as Payzone. The company's card payment solutions began migrating to Takepayments in 2019, leaving the Payzone brand to concentrate on broader payment hubs.
With the UK economy downgraded, you’ll want as much of an advantage as possible. We explore all in our Takepayments review 2023!
Table of Contents:
Our Hot-Take, Takepayments’ Pros & Cons
PROS
CONS
Takepayments provides a variety of card processing terminals, including those designed to be used at a stationary cash register (Countertop), moved from place to place inside a business (Portable), or used remotely (Mobile).
Even mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and Samsung Pay may be used to make purchases. All major credit cards (Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro) are accepted automatically, and American Express may be added with a separate arrangement.
Rather than investing in volatile popular stocks, you can opt to invest in a card machine to improve your business:
⭐ Ingenico iCT250 Counter Machine
- Terminal for accepting credit cards
- Uses an electrical cord, limiting its placement to a permanently installed counter
- Connecting to a network (Internet or phone) is required for card processing
- With a receipt printer and keypad both incorporated.
⭐ Wireless Ingenico Move/3500 Counter Machine
- Transportable credit card reader
- Credit card processing through a portable, wireless machine
- Needs to be in close proximity to its charging station in order to establish a Bluetooth connection
- Convenient receipt printing and an illuminated keypad are included
- Assuming daily use, a fully charged battery will last the whole day.
⭐ Ingenico Move/5000 Mobile Reader
- Super portable card reader for mobile
- Merchants on the move may use the portable terminal
- Integrated SIM card uses 3G network for mobile payment processing
- A single charge will last all day
- Incorporates a receipt printer and an illuminated keyboard.
Daily transaction reports are available for printing from any terminal. The Ingenico terminals only provide monthly statements from the acquirer as sales reports.
You can't access your card terminals, financials, payouts, or account settings via a central internet dashboard. If you need to connect with Xero or another accounting programme, this might be a problem.
The PAX A920 card machine is a smart POS terminal that combines a wireless card payment terminal and a checkout station into a single, lightweight device.
It replaces the traditional keypad with a 5-inch HD touchscreen that is also very simple to maintain. It has a 10-hour battery life, can accept cards through WiFi, Bluetooth, or 4G (with an additional SIM card), and may be docked while not in use.
Like the other card readers mentioned above, it has a printer for creating receipts. This includes one of two memberships to the Takepayments service:
- Easy Payment Plan: £7.50 per month + VAT (monthly contract)
- Takepayments+ Monthly Fee: £25 + VAT (annual contract)
The Easy Deal requires no extra inventory monitoring or cash acceptance software in order to take card payments on the move. It's perfect for retailers that can't commit to anything more than a month, but it costs £150 + VAT to start up. Free mobile access with SIM card.
With Takepayments+ (pictured above), you get cutting-edge tools including an integrated product library, sales and inventory data, and itemised receipts. No initial investment is required, and the monthly charge covers the SIM card, rental of the card machine, and software.
Integrating With a POS
How many POS systems can you integrate with Takepayments?
The tPOS cash register is Takepayments' proprietary solution. With this, you get Electronic Point-of-Sale (EPOS) software, a tablet for registering, and a mobile PAX A920 for credit card processing.
The POS software is not available for personal download on consumer tablets or mobile devices. Instead, PAX's E700 or E800 specialised tablet registers are equipped with receipt printers.
Monthly fees range from £45 to £55 for the retail package, and from £55 to £65 for the hospitality package. Every programme has a £250 initial investment.
You can also expand the configuration by connecting a cash drawer, kitchen printer, barcode scanner, or any other appropriate gear.
For a charge and a contract lasting up to three years, you may also acquire the PAX A920 terminal pre-loaded with Epos Now until software (eposmove).
We found the eposmove terminal to be a highly portable POS system usable in a variety of settings, including the cosmetics industry, hotels, and shops.
With Epos Now, you get complete access to its browser-based dashboard for administration operations, as well as helpful features like a product library and basic customer loyalty capabilities.
Integrations with accounting software, e-commerce platforms, and other systems are also possible. Unfortunately for companies who prefer a different POS system, Takepayments cannot presently be connected with any other third-party systems than Epos Now.
We Think Takepayments Fees Are Middle-of-the-Road… 💸
If you want to know how much the hardware and software from Takepayments will cost your business, you'll need to get an estimate.
At a minimum, a one-year commitment to takepayments is required. This is a shorter time period than Worldpay's 18 months but longer than Dojo's 6. There is no pay-as-you-go option, unlike with a Barclays Merchant Account.
However, when compared to other standard merchant services, takepayments has the lowest basic transaction charge (0.3%) we found. Our analysis places it in about second place in terms of value, with a score of 4.2 out of 5.
That means the base transaction cost for takepayments is lower than the ones charged by Retail Merchant Services (0.4%) and Worldpay (0.75%). Your specific charge will be detailed in the estimate you get, but expect to pay between 0.3% and 2.29%.
When comparing online transaction costs, takepayments is the clear winner over Retail Merchant Services, costing only 10p instead of 0.79% + 10p.
For your first 400 online purchases, the service provider will even cover the fee. Takepayments has no initial service costs, making it a more attractive option than Barclays Merchant Services.
Takepayment's account fee is a major stumbling block for the service. While it varies depending on the kind of transaction, the base monthly cost of £20 is among the highest we've encountered.
It's more expensive than Worldpay (£9.95/mo) and Retail Merchant Services (£10/mo), but less expensive than Dojo (£24.95/mo).
Medium-sized businesses, in particular, may save money by using takepayments because of the service's extensive reporting and support for several currencies. Due to the lack of overhead associated with using a mobile merchant account, such as Zettle and Square are ideal for startups who are ready to start accepting payments but don't yet have a physical location.
Does Takepayments Fit You?
Keep in mind that the merchant will set their own transaction costs. Card fees are mostly based on transaction value and sales volume.
If your typical transaction is worth just £5, your advertised costs will be greater than those of someone handling transactions of £100 or more.
Because of this, it's unlikely that businesses like cafes and convenience shops would find Takepayments useful.
On the other side, medium businesses with higher minimum transactions, like auto dealerships, beauty salons, restaurants, and boutiques would be offered reasonable rates.
The total cost of a transaction includes a predetermined authorisation charge plus a percentage of the total that is tied to the card type or brand. The fees offered by Takepayments can be broken down into four categories:
- ✔️ Biz debit cards
- ✔️ Biz credit cards
- ✔️ Domestic debit cards
- ✔️ Domestic credit cards
The lowest rate is for domestic cards at as low as 0.28%, while the highest rate is for corporate cards is 2.5% plus the set authorisation price.
There will also be a monthly minimum service charge, which is the lowest possible transaction fee each month (for example, £20).
Even if you only use your card machine a handful of times a month and your total transaction fees for the month add up to, say, £10, you will still be out £20.
- Related reading 📙: Step-By-Step Guide for Selling a UK Business
Takepayments Contracts
If you cancel your Easy Deal subscription or an annual plan at least 30 days or 60 days before the end of the contract, respectively, you won't be charged a cancellation fee.
Due to automatic renewal, early cancellation is still possible for the renewed contract if the appropriate notice is not provided. A lump sum payment is required for the early termination of a contract.
If a pandemic shutdown forces your company to temporarily shutter, you may ask Takepayments to suspend your payments while you regroup.
Contract terms for the tPOS bundles are 18 months. There is a separate, three-year contract obligation for the Epos Now integration.
Since Epos Now is an independent entity with its own agreements, it is imperative that you read the fine print before committing to anything. At £45 per month, eposmove-powered touchscreen terminals may be rather pricey.
Opinions of Purchasers
There's a good reason why takepayments has the highest customer satisfaction rating among the services we analysed online (4.4 out of 5). Many evaluations specifically named and praised Takepayments' support agents, demonstrating the high quality of that department's work.
With the help of Takepayments' expert onboarding staff, you'll be up and running in no time. Every business will have access to a personal account manager.
Telephone assistance for Takepayments is available every day of the week, although, at different times: 8AM to 7PM throughout the week, 9AM to 5PM on weekends and Bank Holidays, and lines close at 1PM on Sundays. Even traditional letter writing is still an option if electronic mail isn't feasible!
At a time when business is all about speed, while most of us won’t be waiting for pigeon mail to get an answer to our queries, there is a FAQ section available online, but it is difficult to locate answers to specific problems since the search bar so seldom returns results, even when you enter phrases you know are covered.
Local consultants are available to visit your office before you commit to Takepayments so they can learn more about your company. As part of the guarantee that you will get a special shipment, this may come as a surprise to certain shop owners.The general consensus on Takepayments is favourable, although the service has received a flood of complaints in the previous 12 months.
However, there will always be those with differing opinions… Of those who found fault with the service, some of the recurring criticisms are as follows:
- Some people have a terrible time with the website-building tool. (All in all, HostingData would recommend using a specialist website building service anyway if you want the best results).
- Retailers who didn't know they had to quit their contract two months before it was up were hit with a £700+ penalty.
- Cancellation requests provided through email are often not received by Takepayments, leading to automatic renewal of the service agreement.
- Product misrepresentation during a salesperson's cold call or in-store visit.
- The whole cost of everything is not disclosed at the time of registration.
- The inability to accept credit card payments due to malfunctioning card terminals and the subsequent absence of technical assistance.
- There is either no service provided, or it is really subpar. Protracted phone wait times. Some customers have to repeat themselves many times since they are never able to speak with the same "account manager."
Obtaining a copy of the contract to peruse at one's leisure might help prevent some of these problems. Takepayments emphasises the 2-month cancellation term throughout the signup process, which is sadly standard.
Some merchants have complained that the sales advisers were too aggressive, asking for identification documents before it was even agreed that they wanted to join up. Never provide more information than you feel confident sharing.
On the plus side, Takepayments' typical merchant stays with the firm for years.
Our Breakdown of Takepayments’ Detailed Pros and Cons
Higher Levels of Safety ✔️
Takepayments follows all of the guidelines set out by the Payment Card Industry (PCI) to ensure that customer card information is kept safe. It uses a self-assessment with up to 300 questions as part of its compliance procedure; the supplier provides help throughout. Takepayments, like Retail Merchant Services, perform credit checks on new merchant services and offer 3D secure authentication for further fraud protection.
Many Hardware Options ✔️
Countertop, portable, mobile, and the premium Takepayments+ are the card readers available from Takepayments. With so many options, it's likely to meet the mobility and connectivity requirements of your organisation. The Takepayments+ reader, in addition to the Ingenico IWL251 and M3500 3G mobile choices, save its own data. If you run a mobile company, this is a compelling argument in favour of the provider.
No Invoice System ❌
The absence of an invoice generator is the biggest drawback of takepayments. As a result, it doesn't provide you with a way to make and send customised bills to your clients. Even though this functionality isn't often seen in the merchant account industry, it keeps coming up as a priority in our surveys. Only Barclays Merchant Services, one of Takepayments' main rivals, provides this feature, although indirectly via a partnership with another company. However, this functionality is standard in many mobile merchant accounts (such as SumUp and Stripe).
Money Transfers Could Be Quicker ❌
Similarly to Retail Merchant Services, Takepayments requires three to five business days for money to be sent. Although Dojo and Worldpay are both faster on this front than takepayments, the former. Dojo's time for money transfers is 24 hours, whereas Worldpay's is 30 minutes. While takepayments may accept up to five seconds to execute a payment, Worldpay can do it in as little as three.
What We Thought of Takepayments’ Key Features
Software for Making Reports
Among the several contract payment processing platforms we researched, takepayments had the most comprehensive set of reporting features. That makes it the only option we found that scored a perfect 5/5 for features. In addition to accounting records, it also keeps track of SMS and 📧 email confirmations and allows for individualised product recommendations via its eight reporting features.
In addition to keeping tabs on stock, it may also record sales made by employees and money collected.
This is much more than the three and two options provided by Barclay Merchant Services and Dojo, respectively.
Gateways and Currencies
Moreover, our research shows that Takepayments is one of the most capable solutions for accepting payments on the market. In this respect, it received a perfect score of five stars from our analysts. Takepayments is a virtual terminal that processes payments from a variety of sources, including checkout links and phone orders, in addition to the traditional card machine. This makes it competitive with Worldpay and Retail Merchant Services (which are both very strong), but Takepayments excels in its support for many currencies.
When compared to other merchant accounts, its acceptance of 170 different currencies is quite remarkable (traditional or mobile). In comparison to Worldpay and Retail Merchant Services, it supports 50 and 70 more currencies, respectively.
- Related reading 📙: Best Forex Brokers in 2023
EPOS Expansion 🛒
- Retailers pay £45 per month for the tablet-sized tPOS counter
- Hotel organisations pay £55 per month for the dual-screen tPOS complete
- A setup charge of £250 is required for each of these plans
- Barclays Merchant Services' POS hardware, the Smartpay Touch, is much cheaper at £29 monthly with no upfront investment.
Unlike Worldpay and Dojo, takepayments may be turned into an EPOS system with the use of dedicated hardware. Bookings and time tracking are two features that restaurant owners will find especially handy, while there is also a retail version available. For even less money, you can open a mobile merchant account with a company like Square or Zettle, which includes a point-of-sale system at no additional charge.
Online and Remote Payments
Get a wide variety of online payment options in addition to credit card terminals, most of which need a yearly subscription fee. Among them are:
- Payment gateway ✅: Takepayments-hosted, although fully-customizable, online storefront embedded within your site for taking payments. You won't need to hire a coder to set up the web gateway since assistance is available. To be used with more than fifty different kinds of online stores.
- Get a website ✅: Takepayments will build you a website every month for £39 + VAT if you don't already have one.
- Pay via a link ✅: Email invoices (invoice generation included), a customizable email with a "pay now" button, or just a link copied and pasted into an email may all be used to collect money. Clicking on the link will take you to a secure payment page in your preferred web browser.
- Virtual terminals ✅: Get a secure website (also known as a “virtual terminal”) where credit card information may be entered for processing. Used for making purchases over the phone.
With a web browser, you may use the Merchant Management System to get to these functions. In one central location, you'll have everything you need to monitor payments, add new users, and administer the account for accepting payments online (rather than through a physical card reader).
Pre-authorization checks on credit card payments and recurring payments may also be set up to ensure that customers are able to pay.
Takepayments Review, Our Final Verdict?
Verdict on Fees
We found that Takepayments had some of the lowest basic transaction charges of the contract payment-taking systems we’ve reviewed (4.1/5). The base transaction charge for takepayments is 0.3 per cent, which is lower than the base fee for Retail Merchant Services (0.4 per cent) and Worldpay (0.7 per cent).
When compared to its rivals, however, Takepayments has one of the higher base account costs. Priced at £20/mo, it is more expensive than Worldpay's (£9.95/mo) and Retail Merchant Services' (£10/mo) offerings but less expensive than Dojo's (£24.95/mo).
Keep in mind that the quotation you get from Takepayments will specify the exact amount you'd pay for the service since it's tailored specifically to your needs.
For what kind of organisations would benefit from Takepayments?
Takepayments excels as a business tool for medium-sized companies since they have the resources to make the most of the platform's accounting depth and product flexibility. With a wide range of staff to manage, the sales monitoring tool is a great asset for businesses like these.
To have such a large firm and cope with such a high volume of sales is a great accomplishment. Takepayments' expensive account fee (which begins at £20) isn't going to put a major dent in your finances, and you'll still be able to save money thanks to the service's low transaction rates. We’ve made a guide on What do Financial Advisors do? if you think you need help handling your cashflow.
However, cheaper choices are preferable for those who own a startup or a small firm. For merchants that can afford to pay a little monthly charge in exchange for lower per-transaction rates, Retail Merchant Services is a viable option.
Retail Merchant Services charges between 0.4% and 0.8% of each transaction, with a minimum cost of £10 + VAT. In any case, reputable mobile merchant accounts are available, such as Revolut and Stripe. Account maintenance costs are waived, however, transaction fees are higher: 0.8% + 2p for cash deposits and 1.4% + 20p for cash withdrawals.
Takepayments Review — FAQs
Why do businesses use Takepayments?
Takepayments provides small and medium-sized businesses in the UK with a selection of card machines, EPOS systems, and merchant account services.
What fee does Takepayments impose? 🇬🇧
The transaction fees charged by takepayments change based on the typical transaction volume and value of your company. The current interest rates are between 0.30% to 2.29%. (as of Dec 22). Hardware fees are £4.50/mo per month (on top of your contract cost), and there is a minimum account fee of £20 per month.
Is Takepayments safe to use?
When it comes to security, Takepayments is up to par with PCI requirements. It uses established financial institutions like Barclaycard to handle payments, and these institutions use cutting-edge safety procedures to keep your money secure.
How does Takepayments work?
Businesses may accept payments by credit card and debit card from clients with the help of Takepayments' merchant account. Your company (the merchant), the merchant bank (takepayments), and the payment processor all have a stake in this relationship (for example Stripe).
When leaving Takepayments, how can I terminate my contract?
You may cancel your Takepayments contract by sending a letter or by calling their customer service line. There will be a price for ending the contract early as well as a fee for handling the paperwork involved. However, if you terminate your contract during the first 30 days, your payment will be refunded in full.
