To accept card payments, you sign up with a payment provider, pass its identity and business checks, and give customers a way to pay, such as a payment link on your invoice or a checkout on your website. Most small businesses go through a provider that onboards them under its own card acquiring arrangement, so they can be live within days. Before you choose, check the rate for business cards as well as personal ones, because that's the rate you'll often pay if you invoice other businesses.
In this article
The short version
- Most small businesses sign up through a payment facilitator and go live in days.
- Sign-up needs business details, ID checks and a business bank account.
- Business cards are priced higher than personal cards at most providers.
- You can surcharge commercial cards up to your cost, never personal cards.
- Chargebacks can come up to 120 days later, with a fee each time.
Choose how you'll be set up
You can take cards in two ways. Both reach the same card networks, but your contract is with a different party in each.
Most self-serve products work as a payment facilitator. The provider holds the relationship with the acquiring bank (the bank that settles card payments to merchants) and signs you up underneath it. You contract with the provider, you're priced on its published rates, and you can usually be taking payments within a day or two.
The alternative is a merchant account in your own name, arranged directly with an acquirer. The acquirer underwrites your business first, so it takes longer, and pricing is usually quoted to you individually, sometimes as the actual interchange cost plus a margin. That route tends to be worth the paperwork only once card payments are a large and predictable share of your income, because that's when you have something to negotiate with.
For most small businesses, the first route is the practical one. The questions worth asking are the same either way: who settles the money to you, when it arrives, what the provider can hold back, and who you call when a payment goes wrong.
What sign-up asks for
Card providers have to know who they're dealing with, so onboarding is identity and anti-money-laundering checks in the form of a sign-up page. Expect to provide:
- your business details, including company number if you're a limited company, and a description of what you sell
- identity details for the people who own or control the business
- a UK business bank account in your business's name, for payouts
- the details your customers will see, such as your trading name, contact email and the name that appears on their card statement
Get the statement name right first time. A customer who doesn't recognise a payment on their statement is more likely to dispute it, and each dispute costs you a fee whether or not you win.
A straightforward UK company can often finish onboarding within a day or two. Higher-risk sectors and ownership structures that aren't obvious from Companies House usually need a manual review, which takes longer.
Check the rate for the cards your customers use
Card pricing usually has at least two tiers, and the tier depends on the card your customer uses, not on you. UK law caps interchange, the part of the fee that goes to the card-issuing bank, at 0.2% on personal debit cards and 0.3% on personal credit cards. Business, corporate and commercial cards are outside those caps, so providers charge more for them.
That matters if your customers are businesses, because their finance teams tend to pay on company cards. Here's what a £1,000 invoice costs at two providers' published UK rates:
| Card used | Stripe | Adfin |
|---|---|---|
| Personal debit or credit card | £15.20 (1.5% + 20p) | £10.20 (1% + 20p) |
| Business or commercial card | £28.20 (2.8% + 20p) | £20.20 (2% + 20p) |
The headline rate on a pricing page describes the cheaper row. If most of your card payments land in the second row, your real rate is the second one.
You have three ways to manage it, and you can use more than one. Ask any provider what your rate would be on a card mix like yours, not the headline. Pass the fee on for commercial cards: the law lets you add a surcharge on a commercial card as long as it doesn't exceed what that payment costs you, while surcharges on personal cards are banned. And move regular invoices to direct debit or pay by bank, where fees are usually capped. On Adfin, the percentage on direct debit and bank payments is capped at £4, so the same £1,000 invoice costs £4.20 that way.
Set up payments and plan for disputes
Once you're approved, the order of work is simple:
- Choose how customers reach the payment. A payment link on the invoice needs no website work. A checkout on your own site does.
- Test with your own card, including a refund, before a customer sees it.
- Ask what a dispute costs, whether fees are deducted from payouts, and whether quoted prices include VAT.
- Check your first month's statement against the quote, by card type.
Accepting cards also means accepting that a payment can be reversed. A cardholder can ask their bank for a chargeback if goods don't arrive, don't match their description or the card was used without permission, and the window usually runs to 120 days. Online and payment-link payments carry more chargeback risk than payments where the card and PIN are present, and providers charge a fee per dispute on top of returning the money.
If you'd rather run cards alongside your other payment methods, Adfin puts card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, pay by bank and direct debit on the same invoice and sends the payment link by email, SMS or WhatsApp. Payments are matched back to the invoice in Xero or QuickBooks, and card payments are paid out in full two working days later, with the fee invoiced separately. For business customers, its Customer Agents can add the card fee to business card payments, within rules you set, and chase anyone who hasn't paid.
Common questions
Do I need a merchant account to accept card payments? No. Most providers onboard you under their own acquiring arrangement as a payment facilitator. A merchant account in your own name becomes worth considering once card volumes are high enough to negotiate.
What do card providers ask for at sign-up? Business details, identity checks on the people who own or control the business, a UK business bank account in your business's name, and the name customers will see on their statements.
How long does it take to start accepting cards? Often a day or two for a straightforward UK company. Businesses that need a manual review take longer.
Why is my card rate higher than the rate I was quoted? Usually because of card mix. Business and commercial cards are priced higher than personal cards, so a business-to-business customer base lands on the higher rate more often.
Can I charge customers the card fee? On a commercial card, yes, as long as the fee doesn't exceed what that payment costs you. On a personal card, surcharges are banned.
How long can a customer dispute a card payment? Usually up to 120 days after the payment, or after the goods or services were due.
Sources
- legislation.gov.uk - Regulation (EU) 2015/751 on interchange fees (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2015/751
- Payment Systems Regulator - Market review into the supply of card-acquiring services: final report (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.psr.org.uk/media/p1tlg0iw/psr-card-acquiring-market-review-final-report-november-2021.pdf
- GOV.UK - Invoicing and taking payment from customers: payment obligations (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.gov.uk/invoicing-and-taking-payment-from-customers/payment-obligations
- Stripe - Pricing and fees (UK) (accurate as of October 2026) https://stripe.com/gb/pricing
- Stripe Support - What's the difference between standard and premium cards (accurate as of October 2026) https://support.stripe.com/questions/what-s-the-difference-between-standard-and-premium-cards
- Adfin - Pricing (accurate as of October 2026) https://www.adfin.com/pricing
