How to switch UK card payment provider, step by step

You already know your card processing rate has crept up, your provider has not picked up the phone for two days, or your contract has rolled into an out-of-contract default and your real cost is now uncomfortably above the market. The friction stopping you switching is rarely the maths. It is that nobody has explained what switching actually involves, end to end, in plain English. So you push the decision to next quarter. And the next. And it costs you money every month you delay.

This guide is the seven-step switch process Reeve Consult uses with our own clients. Total elapsed time end to end: typically 10-14 working days. Total downtime: zero, when done properly. With UK card spending data from UK Finance showing total volumes growing 5-7 per cent a year, staying on an old contract is costing more every quarter. We will walk through what happens at each stage, what your job is, what the new provider's job is, and the three places things actually go wrong.

The seven steps, end to end

Step 1 — Read your last three statements

The thing the rest of the process turns on. Pull your last three months of merchant statements. Calculate your true blended rate by adding every fee on each month and dividing by gross card volume. Note your average monthly card turnover, your average transaction size, and your card mix. This data is what every comparative quote will be priced against.

If you would rather not do this yourself, send us the three statements and we will do the maths in writing within one working day. Reeve Consult's free Card Processing Rate Analyser will also do it automatically.

Either way, you cannot skip this step. Without real numbers from your real statements, every subsequent quote is theoretical.

Step 2 — Get a comparative quote

Ask your existing provider for their best renewal rate, in writing. Then ask at least one alternative provider — ideally two — for an apples-to-apples quote against your real three months of statement data. Be explicit: you want the true blended rate, the per-transaction authorisation fee, the PCI compliance cost, the terminal rental, the minimum monthly volume threshold, the exit fee structure on the new contract, and the support SLA — all in writing.

If a provider refuses to put any of these answers in writing, that is the answer. Move on.

For most UK independents, the comparative quote step takes about a day of back-and-forth email. The provider who responds fastest is usually the one to take seriously.

Step 3 — Confirm exit fee cover

If you are mid-contract with your current provider, you almost certainly owe an exit fee. The new provider can sometimes cover that fee as part of moving you across. Dojo Partners (including Reeve Consult) cover up to £3,000 of inbound exit fees on standard cases — enough to cover most UK SMEs stuck in 12-24 months of remaining contract.

Get this in writing as part of the new quote, before signing anything. The phrase to use: "What is the maximum exit fee you will cover, and what evidence do you need from me to prove the exit fee amount?" Usually all you need is a written invoice or letter from your existing provider confirming the exit fee figure.

The Payment Systems Regulator's market review was clear that exit fees act as a brake on competition. Exit-fee cover is one of the few mechanisms in the UK market that breaks that brake. Use it.

Step 4 — Sign and place the hardware order

Once you are happy with the comparative quote and the exit fee cover, sign. The new provider raises the underwriting application (assuming you are in one of Dojo's accepted merchant categories, which covers most UK SMEs), gets you board-approved, and ships the new terminals.

For Dojo specifically, you should expect hardware to arrive within 2-3 working days of approval. Most other UK providers run 5-10 working days. Diary the expected delivery date.

While you wait: notify your bank's commercial team that a new card processor is being added to the account, so the inbound settlements are not flagged as suspicious. Most UK SME accounts handle this automatically, but a five-minute call to the bank prevents the rare friction case.

Step 5 — Reconfigure your EPOS

If your card terminal integrates with your EPOS (most hospitality and retail setups), now is the moment to get the EPOS reconfigured to talk to the new terminals. The new provider will have integration documentation. Most modern UK EPOS systems (Lightspeed, Toast, Square, Vend, Epos Now, Tevalis, ICRTouch) handle the reconfiguration in a few clicks. Older systems sometimes need a paid engineer visit.

Schedule this for a quiet period (Tuesday afternoon for most hospitality, midweek morning for retail). Allow two hours including testing. End-of-day reconciliation between EPOS card total and new terminal card total should match to the penny on the first day.

Step 6 — Run the new terminals in parallel for two days

Optional but recommended. Process a portion of the day's card sales on the new terminals while the old terminals are still live. This confirms the new terminal is connecting to the network reliably, the receipts print correctly, the EPOS reconciliation matches, and any small issues surface in a controlled environment rather than during peak service.

Two days is usually enough. After that, switch fully to the new terminals and stop using the old ones.

Step 7 — Cancel the old contract

Once the new terminals have been running cleanly for at least one full week, formally cancel the old contract in writing. Use the notice period in the old contract (typically 30-90 days). Confirm the cancellation has been actioned in writing.

Return the old hardware following the provider's published returns process — usually a tracked courier label and a packaging guide they email you. Photograph the equipment before posting it back, and keep proof of delivery. Some providers charge unreturned-hardware fees that can be larger than the original purchase price. HMRC guidance on business record keeping recommends keeping all card-processing contract and returns documentation for at least six years, which gives you the evidence base if a billing dispute appears later.

That is the switch complete.

How long does it actually take?

End to end, here is what 10-14 working days looks like in practice.

1. Day 1 — pull three statements, calculate true blended rate
2. Day 2-3 — send statements to two providers for comparative quotes
3. Day 4-5 — receive quotes, push back on anything not in writing
4. Day 6 — sign with new provider, raise underwriting
5. Day 7-8 — board approval and hardware shipped (Dojo: 2-3 days)
6. Day 9-10 — hardware arrives, EPOS reconfigured, parallel running begins
7. Day 11-12 — fully switch to new terminals, monitor closely
8. Day 13-14 — formal cancellation of old contract, return old hardware

Two weeks of light involvement. The actual hands-on time from you is probably 5-7 hours across the whole period, mostly in the first three days.

The three places switches actually go wrong

Knowing these in advance is how you avoid them.

Pattern 1 — vague exit fee numbers

You think your exit fee is "around £2,000". The actual invoice comes in at £3,400. The cover from the new provider was capped at £3,000. You owe £400 you did not budget for.

Fix: get the exit fee figure in writing from your existing provider before you sign anything new. They are legally obliged to give you the figure if you ask. Then check the exit-fee cover from the new provider covers it. If there is a gap, negotiate.

Pattern 2 — EPOS integration "on the roadmap"

You sign on the assumption your specific EPOS will integrate with the new terminal. After hardware arrives you discover the integration is "Q4 2026" and your end-of-shift reconciliation now requires manual entry. Switch becomes painful.

Fix: confirm in writing during Step 2 that your specific EPOS version is currently integrated and supported. Ask for the name of a reference customer running the same EPOS + new terminal combination today. If they cannot give you one, the integration is not really live.

Pattern 3 — old hardware return goes wrong

You return the old terminals. The courier loses them, or the provider says they did not arrive, and you are billed £400 per missing terminal. This happens more often than it should.

Fix: photograph the equipment with timestamp before posting. Use a tracked courier service. Keep the tracking number and proof of delivery for 12 months. If a missing-hardware charge appears, you have evidence to dispute it.

Where Reeve Consult fits

If the seven steps above sound like more work than you want to take on, that is what we do. As an authorised Dojo Partner we run the full process for our clients: statement review, comparative quote, exit fee cover (up to £3,000), hardware shipped from Dojo within 2-3 days, EPOS reconfiguration support, parallel running coordination, and old-contract cancellation paperwork. The total time we ask you to spend is typically 90 minutes, spread across the 10-14 day window.

To start, send us your last three statements or grab the free Card Processing Rate Analyser. For context on what you are actually paying today, see our pillar credit card processing fees UK explainer, our merchant statement reading guide, our breakdown of hidden card machine fees, and our terminal comparison framework.

Sector-specific guidance sits on our pages for UK restaurants, UK retail, and UK salons and clinics.