The percentage
Charged on the value of each sale. It is the number on every provider’s homepage, and on its own it is not comparable between them.
CalculatorWhat are card payments
What are card payments
actually costing you?
Put in what you take in a month and what a typical sale is worth. You get the real total — fees, plan cost and the effective rate that comes out the other end. No sign-up, no email.
All at the counter or on a phone
All UK and EEA cards
Starter · estimated monthSame rate on every plan
£145.30/month
An effective rate of 1.82% on £8,000 across roughly 333 payments.
- Percentage fees (Stripe's rate)
- £112.00
- Fixed fees per payment
- £33.30
- Plan fee
- £0.00
- Total cost
- £145.30
You keep
£7,854.70
The card fees above are the same on every plan. Changing plan changes only the plan fee: Starter £0 · Pro £19 · Scale £79.
Get started on Starter1.4% + 10p in person · 1.5% + 20p online
Reading the result
The number that matters is the last one
Providers advertise the headline percentage because it is the flattering half of the price. The effective rate is the whole of it.
The pence
A fixed amount on every transaction, regardless of size. This is what quietly punishes low-value sales, and it is why a café and a plumber on the same rate card pay very different amounts.
The monthly fee
With most providers it buys a lower percentage, and whether it pays depends on volume. Here it does not touch the rate — it buys till features, users and support — so the calculator shows it as its own line rather than blending it in.
Questions
What people ask about card fees
What is an effective rate?
Your total card costs for the month divided by everything you took, as a percentage. It is the only number worth comparing between providers, because it folds the percentage, the per-transaction pence and any monthly fee into one figure. A headline rate on its own tells you very little.
Why does my average sale change the cost so much?
Because most pricing has a fixed pence element on every transaction. At a £4 coffee, 10p is 2.5% on its own; at a £90 job it is barely noticeable. Two businesses taking identical monthly totals can pay very different effective rates purely on basket size.
Does this include VAT?
No. Card processing fees are exempt from VAT in the UK, so the figures here are what actually leaves your account.
Does a paid plan lower the card rate?
Not here. Every Cheekypayments plan pays Stripe's published rate, so the plan fee buys software and support rather than a discount. With most other providers it does, and the arithmetic is the same: the saving per pound has to beat the fee, and where that crossover sits depends on your takings and your average sale.
Our own rate is 1.4% + 10p in person and 1.5% + 20ponline — Stripe’s published UK rates, the same on every plan. The pricing page has the full card, and the comparisons put them next to what Cheekypayments is usually weighed up against.