SumUp Fees Explained (2026): Non-UK Card Charges Included
SumUp fees look like the simplest in UK payments: one flat 1.69% and done. In reality there are several different rates depending on how the payment is taken and, increasingly important, where the customer's card was issued. This guide lays out every SumUp charge for UK businesses as of July 2026, including the non-UK card fee that surprises tourist-facing businesses on their statements.
What are SumUp's fees in the UK?
On the standard pay-as-you-go plan, SumUp charges 1.69% for in-person card payments including Amex, 2.5% for online payments and payment links, and 2.95% plus 25p for keyed phone payments through the virtual terminal. There is no monthly fee, no PCI fee and no contract.
| Payment type | Pay-as-you-go | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| In person (tap, chip and PIN) | 1.69% | Same rate for Visa, Mastercard and Amex |
| Non-UK issued card in person | 1.69% + 1.5% international fee | Effective 3.19% |
| Online, payment links, QR codes | 2.5% | Card-not-present rate |
| Phone payments (virtual terminal) | 2.95% + 25p | Highest-risk category |
| Monthly fee | None | PCI compliance included |
| Refunds and chargebacks | Original fee kept; dispute fee around £10 | Failed payments cost nothing |
Rates are SumUp's published UK pricing at the time of writing and worth confirming against the fee schedule in your own SumUp profile, since SumUp adjusts pricing per market. One genuinely useful quirk: SumUp charges no VAT on transaction fees, so the headline rate is the real rate.
What is the SumUp transaction fee on non-UK cards?
SumUp applies an additional 1.5 percentage point international fee when the customer's card was issued outside the UK, taking the standard 1.69% in-person rate to an effective 3.19%. The card networks charge more for cross-border transactions, and SumUp passes that on.
You cannot tell by looking at a card whether it was issued abroad, and the customer pays nothing extra; the fee comes out of your side. For a cafe near a tourist attraction, a hotel-adjacent bar or an airport-run taxi, international cards can be a third or more of takings, which quietly lifts the real blended rate well above the advertised 1.69%. If your card income looks lower than your till says it should, this fee is one of the first places to look, and our guide on how to read your card machine statement covers the rest.
How does SumUp Payments Plus change the fees?
Payments Plus costs £19 a month and cuts the in-person rate on domestic consumer cards from 1.69% to 0.99%. The break-even point sits around £3,000 a month of in-person UK card takings, below which the subscription costs more than it saves.
Two caveats: the discount applies to domestic consumer cards, so international, corporate and online payments do not get the headline saving, and if a large share of your volume is online, the real break-even climbs. Run the numbers on your actual card mix before subscribing, and remember hardware is discounted 50% on the plan if you were buying a reader anyway.
When does SumUp stop being cheap?
SumUp's flat pricing is excellent below roughly £3,000 to £5,000 a month in card takings and increasingly expensive above it. Since around 80% of UK consumer card payments are debit, a business on negotiated custom pricing from around 0.35% for debit pays a fraction of 1.69% on most transactions.
Worked example: £10,000 a month in-person at 1.69% costs £169 in transaction fees. The same volume on tiered custom pricing at a blended rate around 0.6% costs about £60, even after typical monthly items such as terminal rental from around £15 and a PCI fee of around £6. That crossover logic is the entire subject of flat-rate vs custom pricing: is SumUp or Square right for you, and the switching process itself is covered in how to switch your card machine provider.
What do SumUp customers say about the fees?
SumUp scores around 4.1 out of 5 on Trustpilot from more than 20,000 reviews. The fees themselves attract little complaint, with praise for the no-hidden-fees setup; the recurring criticisms are support response times on standard accounts and funds held during account reviews.
Settlement is the other practical point: standard payouts to your own bank take two to three working days, while the free SumUp business account brings that to next morning including weekends. For a weekend-heavy trader, that difference matters more than a fraction of a percent.
Is SumUp right for your business?
SumUp remains one of the best starting points in UK payments: cheap hardware, honest flat pricing and no commitment. It stops being the right answer when volume grows, when international cards are a big share of takings, or when phone payments at 2.95% plus 25p become routine.
The healthy habit is checking your effective rate every six months: divide your total monthly fees by your total card takings. If that number has drifted well above what your volume could command, it is time to compare.
Want to know your real SumUp rate?
Send us a month of SumUp payout reports and we will calculate your true blended rate, including international card fees, and show you what the alternatives cost at your volume. Free, no obligation.
Get your free statement reviewFrequently asked questions
Why is SumUp charging me more than 1.69%?
The most common reasons are non-UK issued cards, which carry an additional 1.5 percentage point international fee, online or link payments at 2.5 percent, and phone payments at 2.95 percent plus twenty-five pence. Your blended rate reflects your mix of all of these.
Does SumUp charge a fee on non-UK cards?
Yes. An international fee of 1.5 percentage points applies on top of the standard rate when the customer's card was issued outside the UK, taking an in-person payment from 1.69 percent to an effective 3.19 percent. The customer pays nothing extra; the fee is deducted from the business's payout.
Does SumUp have any monthly fees?
Not on the standard plan. There is no monthly fee, no PCI compliance fee, no statement fee and no minimum usage charge. The optional Payments Plus subscription at nineteen pounds a month exists purely to lower the in-person domestic rate to 0.99 percent.
Do SumUp fees include VAT?
Yes, effectively: SumUp charges no VAT on its transaction fees, so the advertised percentage is the full amount deducted. That makes it directly comparable with other providers only after checking whether their quoted rates attract VAT.
What does SumUp charge for refunds and chargebacks?
Refunding a customer costs nothing extra, but the original processing fee is not returned. Chargebacks carry a dispute fee of around ten pounds in addition to the disputed amount being withheld while the case is reviewed.
How quickly does SumUp pay out?
Standard settlement to an external bank account takes two to three working days. With the free SumUp business account, payouts arrive the next morning, including weekends and bank holidays.
Is SumUp cheaper than a traditional merchant account?
Below roughly three thousand pounds a month in card takings, usually yes, because there are no fixed costs. Above roughly five thousand pounds a month, negotiated pricing with debit from around 0.35 percent typically works out significantly cheaper even after monthly fees.
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