A virtual terminal lets any UK business accept card payments over the phone, by post, or by manually entering card details into a web browser — no card reader, no hardware, and no customer present required. It is the standard solution for tradespeople taking deposits over the phone, service businesses invoicing by call, and mail-order companies processing written orders. Unlike an online checkout, which the customer drives, a virtual terminal is operated by the merchant: you take the card number, expiry date, and CVV verbally, enter them securely, and process the payment in seconds.
The UK processes more than 500 million MOTO (Mail Order and Telephone Order) transactions every year, making this a mainstream — not niche — payment method. Providers range from free-to-join flat-rate options like Square (2.5% per transaction, no monthly fee) to enterprise-grade solutions with custom interchange-plus pricing for high-volume businesses. This guide compares six leading virtual terminal providers, breaks down the true costs, and explains exactly who needs one and how to choose the right fit for your business.
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- Virtual terminals let you take card payments via any web browser - no hardware needed, ideal for phone orders, invoicing, and mail-order businesses
- Costs range from 1.5% to 2.5% per transaction - some providers charge monthly fees (£10–£30), others are PAYG with higher per-transaction rates
- Stripe and Square offer the simplest setup - create an account and start taking payments within minutes, no merchant account application needed
- All virtual terminal transactions are Card-Not-Present (CNP) - higher fraud risk means higher processing fees than in-person chip-and-PIN payments
- Your provider handles PCI DSS certification - but train staff never to write down card numbers or store them outside the terminal interface
What Is a Virtual Terminal?
A virtual terminal is a secure web-based interface that lets a merchant manually enter a customer’s card details to process a card-not-present payment — no hardware required.
A virtual terminal is, at its simplest, a payment form in a web browser. You log in to your provider’s dashboard on any computer, tablet, or smartphone, enter the customer’s long card number, expiry date, and CVV (security code), add the amount, and submit. The payment processor charges the card exactly as it would for an in-person tap or chip-and-PIN — the only difference is that neither you nor the customer needs a physical card reader.
Because the card is not physically present, virtual terminal transactions are classified as Card-Not-Present (CNP) or MOTO (Mail Order / Telephone Order) transactions. This classification matters for two reasons:
- Rates are higher: Issuers and processors charge more for CNP transactions because fraud risk is higher without a chip or biometric authentication.
- PCI DSS compliance applies: You become responsible for handling card data securely. All reputable virtual terminal providers are PCI DSS Level 1 certified, but your own handling practices must also comply.
Unlike a payment link (where you send the customer a URL and they enter their own details), a virtual terminal requires you to enter the card data on the customer’s behalf. This makes it ideal for telephone orders, where a payment link would break the flow of the call.
Best Virtual Terminal Providers UK 2026
Square is the best virtual terminal for most UK businesses in 2026: 2.5% per transaction, no monthly fee, no contract, and a free dashboard that also handles in-person payments and invoicing.
We assessed each provider on transaction fees, monthly costs, contract flexibility, ease of use, multi-channel capability (can it also handle in-person and online payments?), and support quality. Here is how the six leading UK virtual terminal providers compare at a glance.
| Provider | Transaction Fee | Monthly Fee | Contract | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square PICK | 2.5% | £0 | None | Most businesses, free all-in-one |
| Stripe | 1.5% + 20p | £0 | None | Developers & API integrations |
| SumUp | 2.95% + 25p | £0 | None | Existing SumUp users |
| Worldpay | From 0.75% | From £9.95 + VAT | 12 months | High-volume & negotiated rates |
| PayPal | 1.2% + 30p | £20 | Monthly | Existing PayPal merchants |
| Takepayments | From 0.3% | Quote-based | 12 months | Traditional businesses wanting low rates |
Square EDITOR’S PICK
Square’s virtual terminal is built into every free Square account and requires no additional setup or monthly subscription. You access it via the Square Dashboard on any browser, enter the customer’s card details and amount, and process the payment in under 30 seconds. It accepts Visa, Mastercard, Maestro, and American Express, and settlements arrive the next working day (instant transfers are available for a 1.5% fee).
At 2.5% per transaction with zero monthly fees, Square is genuinely competitive for businesses processing occasional phone orders alongside regular in-person or online sales. The same Square account covers virtual terminal, card reader, payment links, invoicing, and a free online store — making it the most versatile all-in-one option for most UK SMEs. There is no minimum monthly turnover, no PCI compliance fee, and no chargeback fee.
Pricing: 2.5% per manually entered transaction. No monthly fee, no setup cost, no PCI fee.
Stripe
Stripe does not offer a traditional point-and-click virtual terminal in the same way Square does. Instead, its MOTO capability is accessed via the Stripe Dashboard (the Payment Links tool or the manual charge creation feature in the Payments section) and — for more advanced use cases — via its API. To enable MOTO processing, you need to contact Stripe support to have the feature activated on your account, as it is not switched on by default.
Once enabled, Stripe processes MOTO transactions at its standard UK card rate of 1.5% + 20p for UK-issued cards, making it significantly cheaper than Square or SumUp for businesses with average transaction values above £30. There are no monthly fees and no contract. Stripe’s real strength is integration: businesses already using Stripe for their website checkout can use the same account, the same reporting, and the same reconciliation tools for phone orders — eliminating the need for a second provider.
Pricing: 1.5% + 20p for UK-issued cards. No monthly fee. MOTO feature requires activation via Stripe support.
SumUp
SumUp’s virtual terminal is available to all account holders but is not switched on by default — you need to contact SumUp customer support, complete a short application, and provide documentation proving your business processes legitimate telephone or mail orders. Once approved, the virtual terminal appears both in your browser-based dashboard and inside the SumUp app, making it one of the few solutions you can use on a smartphone on the go.
MOTO transactions through SumUp are priced at 2.95% + 25p per transaction, which is higher than Square’s 2.5% but still reasonable for occasional phone orders. SumUp accepts a wide range of cards — Mastercard, Maestro, Visa, American Express, JCB, Diners Club, and Discover — and there is no monthly fee or contract. The main appeal is consolidation: if you already use SumUp for in-person card payments, adding virtual terminal capability to the same account keeps your reporting clean and your provider count down.
Pricing: 2.95% + 25p per MOTO transaction. No monthly fee. Activation requires approval from SumUp support.
Worldpay
Worldpay is one of the UK’s largest payment processors and has offered virtual terminal services for decades. Its virtual terminal product is available standalone for a monthly fee of £9.95 + VAT, or as part of the broader Worldpay eCommerce package (which also includes a payment gateway and payment links) for £19.95 + VAT per month. There is a minimum monthly service charge of £15, and PCI DSS compliance costs an additional £5 per month.
Transaction fees are not fixed — they are negotiated based on your monthly card turnover, average ticket value, and industry type. Businesses on fixed pricing plans can expect MOTO rates starting around 1.3% + 20p, while higher-volume accounts can negotiate rates as low as 0.75%. Worldpay suits businesses already holding a Worldpay merchant account for in-store payments, as adding virtual terminal capability is straightforward and keeps everything under one contract.
Pricing: From £9.95 + VAT/month. Transaction fees from 0.75% (negotiated). 12-month contract. Additional £5/month PCI fee.
PayPal
PayPal’s virtual terminal is a paid add-on to a standard PayPal Business account. The service costs £20 per month and allows you to process Visa, Mastercard, and Maestro card payments by entering details manually into PayPal’s browser-based interface. Transaction fees depend on your pricing plan: businesses on PayPal’s blended pricing pay 1.2% + 30p per transaction (for UK Visa/Mastercard/Maestro), while those on interchange-plus pricing pay interchange + 1.2% + 30p.
At £20/month, PayPal’s virtual terminal is only cost-effective if you are already processing significant volumes through PayPal and want to centralise your reporting. For a business processing £5,000/month in phone orders, the £20 monthly fee plus 1.2% + 30p per transaction would cost more than Square’s 2.5% flat rate in most scenarios. PayPal is best treated as a supplementary virtual terminal for existing PayPal-centric operations rather than a primary solution for new users.
Pricing: £20/month subscription + 1.2% + 30p per transaction (blended pricing). Interchange-plus available.
Takepayments
Takepayments is a UK-based payment processor that offers virtual terminal capability as part of its merchant account packages. Transaction fees are entirely quote-based and negotiated individually, typically ranging from 0.3% to 2.5% depending on your card turnover, industry, and average transaction value. Like Worldpay, this makes Takepayments potentially very cost-effective for established businesses processing £20,000+ per month in phone orders.
The trade-off is transparency and flexibility. Pricing is not published online, and you must go through the full application and quote process before seeing your rates. Contracts run for 12 months with early termination fees. For businesses that primarily need phone payment processing and can commit to a contract, Takepayments can offer genuinely low rates — but it is poorly suited to businesses that need quick setup or occasional MOTO processing alongside another primary payment method.
Pricing: From 0.3% per transaction (quote-based). Monthly fee varies. 12-month contract. No setup fee.
Virtual Terminal Costs: What Will You Actually Pay?
Virtual terminal costs in the UK range from 1.2% to 2.95% per transaction plus optional monthly fees of £0–£20, depending on provider and volume.
The true cost of a virtual terminal has three components: the transaction fee you pay per payment processed, any fixed monthly or subscription fees, and incidental costs such as chargeback fees or PCI compliance charges. Here is how these stack up across the main providers.
| Provider | Transaction Fee | Monthly Fee | PCI Fee | Chargeback Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Square PICK | 2.5% | £0 | £0 | £0 |
| Stripe | 1.5% + 20p | £0 | £0 | ~£15 |
| SumUp | 2.95% + 25p | £0 | £0 | £10 |
| Worldpay | From 0.75% | From £9.95 + VAT | £5/month | Varies |
| PayPal | 1.2% + 30p | £20 | £0 | Varies |
| Takepayments | From 0.3% | Quote-based | Included | Varies |
Which is cheapest for your volume? The break-even points between providers shift depending on your monthly MOTO turnover:
- Under £2,000/month: Square (2.5%, £0/month) is cheapest. PayPal’s £20 subscription alone represents 1% of £2,000 before any transaction fees.
- £2,000–£10,000/month: Stripe (1.5% + 20p) becomes attractive if you are already a Stripe user. On a £50 average transaction, Stripe costs 95p vs Square’s £1.25 — saving around 24% per transaction.
- Over £10,000/month: Worldpay and Takepayments’ negotiated rates (from 0.75% and 0.3% respectively) can be substantially cheaper, even accounting for monthly fees, if you commit to a 12-month contract.
For a business processing 50 phone orders of £100 each per month (£5,000 total), Square costs £125 in fees. Stripe costs £85. Worldpay at 1.3% + £20 monthly = £85. At this volume, Stripe or Worldpay are both competitive alternatives to Square.
How Virtual Terminals Work
A virtual terminal processes card payments by securely transmitting manually entered card data through your provider’s encrypted gateway to the card issuer for authorisation — typically in under 3 seconds.
When a customer gives you their card details over the phone, here is what happens behind the scenes:
- Data entry: You enter the card number (long number on front), expiry date, and CVV (3-digit security code) into your virtual terminal interface, along with the payment amount.
- Encryption: Your provider’s platform encrypts the data immediately using TLS (Transport Layer Security). The raw card number never passes through your own servers in a compliant setup — it goes directly to the payment processor’s PCI DSS-compliant environment.
- Authorisation request: The processor sends an authorisation request to the card issuer (e.g., the customer’s bank) via the card network (Visa or Mastercard).
- Issuer response: The bank checks the available funds, fraud signals, and account status. It returns an approval or decline code in seconds.
- Confirmation: Your virtual terminal displays an approved or declined status. An approved transaction deducts the funds from the customer’s account immediately, and the money settles into your account within 1–2 business days (or next day with Square and SumUp).
3D Secure (3DS2): Because the customer cannot complete a 3DS2 authentication challenge during a phone call, virtual terminal transactions are exempt from Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements under UK FCA rules. This means you process without the extra authentication step — but it also means you carry more liability if a card is used fraudulently. Your provider handles PCI DSS certification; you must ensure your handling procedures are compliant (no writing down card numbers, no storing CVVs).
Virtual Terminal vs Payment Gateway
A payment gateway is used by customers to enter their own card details online; a virtual terminal is used by the merchant to manually enter a customer’s details on their behalf.
These two terms are often confused, but they serve distinct purposes:
| Feature | Virtual Terminal | Payment Gateway |
|---|---|---|
| Who enters card details? | The merchant | The customer |
| Where? | Merchant’s browser/app | Customer’s browser/app |
| Customer authentication | Not required (MOTO exemption) | Required (3DS2 / SCA) |
| Fraud liability | Merchant bears more risk | Issuer bears liability after 3DS2 |
| Use case | Phone orders, mail orders | E-commerce checkouts |
| Typical fee | 2.5–3% (higher CNP rate) | 1.4% + fixed (UK cards) |
Many businesses need both. If you sell online and take phone orders, providers like Stripe, Square, and PayPal offer both a payment gateway for your website and a virtual terminal under the same account and reporting dashboard, which simplifies reconciliation significantly.
Virtual Terminal vs Card Machine
A card machine requires the customer to be physically present; a virtual terminal lets you process payments remotely with no hardware needed, making it ideal for phone or mail-order transactions.
| Feature | Virtual Terminal | Card Machine (PDQ) |
|---|---|---|
| Hardware required? | No — any browser | Yes — physical terminal |
| Customer present? | No | Yes |
| Transaction rate | Higher (2.5–3% typical) | Lower (1.69–1.75% typical) |
| PIN authentication | Not required | Required (chip + PIN) |
| Setup cost | £0 (software only) | £19–£699 (hardware) |
| Use case | Phone, postal, remote orders | In-person retail, hospitality |
Virtual terminals and card machines are complementary rather than competitive. A tradesperson might use a card machine on-site for completed jobs and a virtual terminal to take deposits over the phone during booking. Most providers — Square, SumUp, Worldpay, Takepayments — offer both under a single account, so there is no reason to choose one to the exclusion of the other.
Key Features to Look For in a Virtual Terminal
The most important virtual terminal features are PCI DSS Level 1 certification, recurring billing support, multi-user access, and integration with your existing accounting or POS system.
Beyond price, the following features determine whether a virtual terminal will work smoothly in your operations:
- PCI DSS Level 1 compliance: All recommended providers are certified at the highest level. Never use a virtual terminal that cannot confirm this — your customers’ card data and your own legal liability depend on it.
- Recurring billing / tokenisation: If you charge customers on a repeat basis (subscriptions, retainer fees, instalment plans), look for a virtual terminal that can store card tokens — so you can rebill without asking for card details each time. Square, Stripe, and Worldpay support this; SumUp’s virtual terminal is more limited here.
- Multi-user access with role permissions: If more than one team member will take phone orders, ensure the platform lets you create separate logins — so individual staff never share credentials (a basic PCI DSS requirement).
- Refund and void capabilities: You need to be able to refund individual transactions easily. All major providers support this from the dashboard; check whether partial refunds are available for your use case.
- Reporting and exports: Transaction history, daily summaries, and CSV exports make reconciliation and VAT returns significantly easier. Stripe and Square have the strongest reporting dashboards.
- Integration with accounting software: Square integrates natively with Xero and QuickBooks. Stripe has strong API integration with almost any accounting platform. SumUp’s integrations are more limited.
- CVV and AVS checks: Address Verification System (AVS) cross-checks the billing postcode the customer provides against what the bank has on file. Enabling both CVV and AVS checks significantly reduces fraud risk on CNP transactions.
Who Needs a Virtual Terminal?
Any UK business that regularly takes payments over the phone, by post, or from customers who cannot be present in person needs a virtual terminal — including tradespeople, service businesses, and mail-order companies.
Virtual terminals are not just for large call centres. They are widely used by:
- Tradespeople and contractors: Plumbers, electricians, and builders who quote and book jobs over the phone and want to take deposits or final payments without visiting the site again.
- Service businesses: Accountants, solicitors, and consultants who invoice clients after a job is complete and want an alternative to BACs transfer when clients prefer to pay by card.
- Healthcare providers: Private clinics, dentists, opticians, and physiotherapy practices that take bookings by phone and want to secure deposits.
- Mail-order businesses: Companies that still receive orders by post or telephone, particularly in specialist or older-demographic markets.
- Events and hospitality: Hotels, event venues, and caterers that take group bookings with card deposits over the phone.
- Charities: Organisations that run telephone fundraising campaigns and need to process donor card payments securely.
If your business only takes payments in person or exclusively through an online checkout where customers enter their own details, you do not need a virtual terminal. But if you have ever taken a customer’s card number over the phone and processed it manually — or wanted to — a virtual terminal is the compliant, secure, and professional way to do it.
Taking card payments by writing down a customer’s number and processing it through your online checkout is not compliant with PCI DSS or card scheme rules. A dedicated virtual terminal is the only legitimate way to process telephone card payments.
Use our free Merchant Account Fee Calculator to get a personalised cost estimate based on your specific requirements.
Related guides: See our best payment gateways comparison and best merchant accounts for small business. Stripe is our top-rated virtual terminal, while Elavon’s Opayo gateway also offers strong virtual terminal capabilities.
Our Verdict
Square is the best virtual terminal for most UK businesses in 2026: free to use, no contract, 2.5% per transaction, and a complete all-in-one platform that covers in-person, online, and phone payments.
For the majority of UK businesses, Square is the clear starting point. It is free to join, free to use, and comes with no minimum volumes or contractual commitments. The 2.5% transaction rate is fair for occasional phone orders, and the broader platform — POS, invoicing, online store, and payment links — means you will not need a second provider for your other payment channels.
If you are already using Stripe for your website checkout and need to add phone order capability, Stripe is the better option: its 1.5% + 20p MOTO rate is significantly cheaper than Square at any meaningful volume. The setup friction (contacting Stripe support to activate MOTO) is a one-off inconvenience.
If you are an existing SumUp user who wants a single account for in-person and phone payments, SumUp’s virtual terminal is worth activating — particularly if you process occasional international card brands that Square does not accept (JCB, Diners Club, Discover). Just expect a slightly higher rate and a £10 chargeback fee.
For businesses processing £10,000 or more per month in phone orders, Worldpay or Takepayments are worth obtaining a direct quote. Both can negotiate rates well below 1% for high-volume accounts, which can represent hundreds of pounds per month in savings versus flat-rate providers. The trade-off is a 12-month contract and less pricing transparency.
PayPal is the weakest choice unless you are already heavily invested in the PayPal ecosystem. The £20/month subscription adds a fixed cost that only makes sense at significant MOTO volumes, and account freeze risk is a real operational concern for businesses that depend on cash flow.
| Business Type | Recommended Provider | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Small business, low MOTO volume | Square | Free, no contract, all-in-one |
| Already on Stripe | Stripe | Lowest per-transaction rate, unified reporting |
| Already on SumUp | SumUp | Single account, wide card acceptance |
| High volume (£10k+/month MOTO) | Worldpay or Takepayments | Negotiated rates, significantly cheaper at scale |
| Existing PayPal merchant | PayPal | Only if already PayPal-centric |
