Cash is dying at the hatch. Anyone who's watched a customer walk away because "card only, sorry, machine's down" knows the reader in your hand is as important as the fryer behind you. Three names dominate the UK van scene: SumUp and Zettle, with Square close behind. They look identical from the queue. The differences are in the fees and the small print. Also the signal, which nobody thinks about until it's gone.
The numbers side by side
Rates below are the standard UK in-person card fees as of August 2026. Providers shuffle pricing every year or so, which is why we've dated this. Check the current figure before you buy.
| Provider | In-person fee | Reader cost | Monthly fee | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SumUp | 1.69% | From £25; Solo £79 | None (optional £19 plan cuts fee to 0.99%) | Solo has a built-in SIM with free mobile data |
| Zettle (PayPal) | 1.75% | Reader 2 £29 + VAT | None | Custom rates if you take £10,000+ a month |
| Square | 1.75% | From £39 | None | Strongest till and EPOS ecosystem of the three |
On fees alone SumUp edges it at 1.69% against 1.75% from the other two. Feels tiny. Across a season it isn't nothing: on £30,000 of card takings the gap is £18. Not life-changing, which is exactly why the decision shouldn't really be about the headline rate. It's about the two things below.
Signal is the real fee
Every one of these readers works beautifully in a coffee shop with wifi. You trade in a field. A reader that can't connect doesn't take money, and the £18 you saved on rates disappears the first time the payment queue stalls behind one buffering handset.
Most readers piggyback on your phone's data by Bluetooth, which means your phone needs signal and battery all day. The exception in the table is SumUp's Solo, which carries its own SIM and free mobile data. At a festival where thirty thousand phones are fighting over one mast, a reader with its own connection and offline-payment fallback is the difference between serving and apologising. That single feature is why you'll see so many Solos at food festivals.
Whichever you pick, test it at a real event before the big weekend. Signal on your driveway proves nothing.
The subscription maths
SumUp's £19-a-month plan drops the fee to 0.99%. Worth it? Only past roughly £2,800 of card takings a month. Under that, the subscription costs more than it saves. Over it, the saving grows fast: a £8,000 August pays the £19 and pockets about £37 on top.
The catch for seasonal traders is the quiet months. If your November takes £900, that £19 is a straight loss. Some vendors switch the plan on for the summer and off for winter, which is fiddly but works. Run your own numbers from last year's takings before signing up to anything monthly. Our Takings & Sales Log makes that a five-minute job.
A word on payouts
All three settle to your bank quickly these days, typically the next working day, with paid-for instant options if cash flow is tight. The detail moves around too much to print here, so check the current payout terms on the provider's own site before you commit. What matters for a weekend trader is simple: money taken on Saturday should be spendable by Monday's cash and carry run. All three manage that.
💡 Pro Tip
Whichever reader you buy, buy two once the business can stand it. A second reader is the cheapest insurance in the van. Dead battery or cracked screen at 1pm on a Saturday? You're trading again in thirty seconds. Some vendors run a different provider as the spare so a provider outage can't stop the whole show either.
So which one?
- Most mobile vendors: SumUp. Lowest standard rate, no monthly commitment, and the Solo's built-in SIM solves the field-signal problem properly.
- Lightest start: Zettle. The cheapest decent reader with PayPal behind it. Painless if you're already in the PayPal world.
- Growing past the van: Square. If a permanent pitch with a till and staff logins is on the horizon, its ecosystem is the one you grow into.
Honestly? All three are good now. The bad options died years ago. Pick the one whose connectivity fits where you actually trade. Keep the receipt. Spend the mental energy you just saved on the menu.
Know what each gig really makes
Card fees are a cost like any other. Our free Event Profit & Loss Calculator puts them next to your pitch fee and stock costs so you can see what a day actually earned you.
Browse All TemplatesOne last nudge: whatever you choose, put the reader price and the monthly plan decision in the diary for review every January. These providers move their pricing about, undercutting each other in waves. Ten minutes a year keeps you on the right side of the maths. Sorted.
