Fees · 5 min read
The Real Cost Of A 'Free' Card Machine
Free machines are common. Free machines with the rate shown upfront are not. Here is where the cost usually goes, and how we do it differently.
Nobody gives away hardware. A card terminal has a cost, and if you are not paying for it monthly then it has been recovered somewhere else. That is not automatically a bad deal. It is only a bad deal when you cannot see where.
Where the cost usually hides
In our experience it goes into one of four places.
- An inflated transaction rate. A few tenths of a per cent on your turnover recovers a terminal quickly and keeps recovering it for years afterwards.
- A long contract. Four and five year terms are common, often with an automatic renewal and a substantial early exit charge.
- Per-transaction authorisation fees. Easy to overlook, and painful on low average spend such as a coffee shop.
- Add-on charges. PCI fees, minimum monthly service charges, and paper statement fees that appear a few months in.
The test that cuts through it
Ask one question before you sign anything: what is my all-in effective rate, and what is the contract length and exit charge. If the machine is free and those two answers are clear and in writing, the deal is probably fine. If the answer is vague, the cost is in there somewhere.
How Atlas does free
Our terminals are free with no rental, no upfront cost and no monthly service fee. We recover our costs through the transaction rate, and we show you that rate before you commit rather than after.
Our standard pricing is tiered by turnover. Under ten thousand pounds a month, the rate is 1.25 per cent on credit, debit and corporate cards. At ten thousand a month or above, it is 0.8 per cent. American Express is 1.9 per cent. That is the whole structure, written down, and you can put your own numbers into the calculator on our homepage before you ever speak to us.
What we do before we quote
We read your current statement first. Not because it is a sales tactic, but because a quote without it is guesswork. Sometimes the review ends with us telling a business they are already on a strong rate and should stay where they are. That conversation costs us an afternoon and is worth more than a signed contract that unravels in six months.
If you want to know what your machine is really costing you, send a statement over. We will mark it up and give you the number.
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