Understanding Square payments fees.

During these times it’s even more important that we’re fully transparent in how our payment processing fees are distributed. When a customer spends money with your business, Square only keeps a fraction of the fees, approximately one third, and that goes back into tools and features for your business.

Square fees by payment type

Card-present payments

When a customer pays via tap, chip and PIN, or contactless payments with their card in person, you pay 1.75% per transaction. There is a lower risk of fraudulent activity when the cardholder is present.

Card-not-present payments

There are multiple types of card-not-present payments. Square pays more for these transactions and the fee increase goes directly to the card issuing bank to help mitigate the risk of fraud and protect your business.

When a customer makes a purchase through your Square Online Store, Square Online Checkout, or eCommerce API, the fee is 1.4% + 25p for UK cards or 2.5% + 25p for non-UK cards. When you manually key in your customer’s card details on your Square POS app, use a card on file, or take payments via Virtual Terminal or an invoice, the fee is 2.5%.

Card processing fees explained.

To process a sale, there are several types of set fees within a transaction. These are set not by Square but by cardholder banks and card networks. They are included as part of Square’s card processing fee.

Interchange fees

Every time a customer uses a credit or debit card in your store, a fee is charged by the cardholder’s bank, such as HSBC or Barclays. This fee can vary greatly, based on the issuer of the card, the card brand, and the country in which it was issued. When Square processes a transaction on your behalf, Square is required to give a percentage of the funds collected to your customer’s card issuer.

Assessment fees

Associations such as Mastercard or Visa also collect fees, called dues and assessments, for the use of their card brands as well as the ability to process transactions through their payment networks. Square is required to give a percentage of the amount collected from your customer to these associations.

Risk and PCI compliance

PCI DSS is a security standard all businesses that accept credit cards must comply with to safely and securely accept, store, process, and transmit cardholder data during debit and credit card transactions. Square’s tools help keep sellers PCI compliant. Square complies with PCI standards so you don’t have to validate your compliance, nor do you pay associated annual fees.

How Square processing fees work.

Here’s an illustrative example using the 1.75% card present processing rate, and a blended cost across AU, JP, CA, US and UK of where the money goes every time you make a sale.

Data in the figure is an illustrative example using the United Kingdom card present processing rate and a blended cost across Australia, Japan, Canada, United States, and United Kingdom.

Square tools and features.

With Square, you benefit from many resources designed to help you run your business. In the £50 transaction shown in the above illustrative example, the £0.30 allocated to Square allows us to provide some of the following tools and features:

Point of sale and eCommerce solutions

Download the free Square POS app or launch an online store so you can sell right away without any up-front investment.

Fraud prevention

Fraud can happen in both low-risk transactions and higher-risk transactions such as card-not-present purchases. We work around the clock to evaluate the legitimacy of your buyers to protect your business.

Dispute management

Get free dispute management services for chargebacks. We cover the fee for every dispute that we fight on your behalf. And we’ve saved sellers millions of dollars globally by managing and winning disputes for them.

Advanced reporting tools

Access important data and powerful tools straight from your Square Dashboard so you can easily keep track of your sales and make important decisions about your business.

Square support

Our general in-house phone support is available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with email access anytime, 24/7. For Terminal and Square for Restaurants sellers, phone support is available 24/7.

Customer Directory

Keep your customers’ information organised and secure. Use it to send email or send invoices.

Team Management

Track team hours, breaks, and sales by employee. Free timecards that sync seamlessly to Square Point of Sale make payroll simple.

Inventory management

Change item details like price, name, or quantity in real time. Upload groups of items faster, track stock quantities, and get email alerts when items run low.

We advocate on your behalf.

Merchants in the U.K. pay millions every year in
interchange fees for electronic payments. A large portion of these fees contribute to product features and enhancements that the card issuer puts back into their portfolio.

At Square, we have an entire team that works on sellers’ behalf to negotiate with banks and card networks to keep rates as low as possible for our sellers.

Stay informed