Before you begin
What you need to compare card fees
The in-person and online shares must total exactly 100%.
Use this ranking only for standard EEA consumer cards. If your customers commonly use business, premium, UK or non-EEA cards, use written provider quotes for that mix.
Hardware, optional POS software, refunds and disputes are kept outside the ranking so changing product bundles do not masquerade as processing-rate differences.
If you cannot recover VAT on provider fees, the tool stops rather than pretending every provider applies VAT in the same way.
Reading the answer
Understanding your card processing costs
A small public-rate gap should not outweigh settlement speed, support, integrations, hardware suitability or contract terms.
At higher turnover, use the result as a benchmark for requesting a written custom quote on the same channel and card mix.
Boundaries
Assumptions and limitations
Working assumptions
- All modelled transactions use standard EEA consumer cards and the visitor can recover VAT charged on provider fees.
- Transaction count is monthly turnover divided by average sale and is split between channels in the same proportions as turnover.
- Revolut Business Basic's current €10 monthly account-plan price is included because it is a required public-plan cost of that route; SumUp Payments Plus includes its €19 monthly fee.
Where to be careful
- Premium, commercial, Amex, UK and other non-EEA card classes are outside this exact common-denominator comparison.
- Hardware purchase or rental, optional POS software, chargebacks, refunds and negotiated pricing are excluded.
- Businesses that cannot recover VAT need provider-specific VAT treatment and are not ranked by this version.
Worked example
The same question, answered end to end
A café processes €8,000 a month on standard EEA consumer cards, with an average sale of €28 and 75% of turnover in person.
What was entered
- €8,000 monthly card turnover and a €28 average sale, or about 286 transactions.
- 75% of turnover is in person and 25% online.
- All modelled cards are standard EEA consumer cards.
- VAT charged on provider fees is recoverable, so the comparison is on the published net-fee basis.
How it is worked out
Turnover and transaction count are split 75/25 between in-person and online sales.
Square applies 1.75% in person and 1.4% + €0.25 online.
SumUp pay as you go applies 1.69%; Payments Plus applies 0.95% in person, 1.69% online and adds its €19 monthly fee.
Stripe applies 1.4% + €0.10 in person and 1.5% + €0.25 online.
Revolut Business Basic applies 0.8% + €0.02 in person and 1% + €0.20 online, plus the €10 monthly Basic plan.
The providers are ranked on those comparable monthly processing and required-plan costs only.
What the tool returns
- Lowest monthly estimate
- €96.57
- Lowest annual estimate
- €1,158.86
- Effective processing cost
- 1.21%
- Transactions modelled
- 286
Common questions
Questions about this tool
Why did Verdanyx remove the high-cost card percentage?
Because the providers do not define one common high-cost class. A business, premium, UK or international card can land in different categories and rates at each provider, so one blended input created false precision.
Why is hardware not included?
The goal here is a processing-rate benchmark. Readers, terminals, rentals and optional software are different products with changing bundles; add those quoted costs after comparing the processing result.
Why does the calculator stop if I cannot reclaim VAT?
Provider VAT treatment is not uniform across transaction fees and products. Applying 23% to every line would be simpler but wrong, so this version refuses that shortcut.
Are the rankings sponsored?
No. Commercial relationships never alter a rate, formula or ranking.