UK card payments, in plain English
17 editorial explainers on the rules, pricing and operations that shape UK card payments. Written for merchants, not for lawyers or developers. Each piece is dated and cites the underlying authoritative source.
Pricing and economics
UK interchange fees explained
Consumer debit 0.2%, consumer credit 0.3%, commercial 1.0% to 2.5%. Who sets interchange fees, what you pay, cross-border caps and PSR status.
Interchange-plus vs blended pricing UK
When IC+ wins, when blended wins. £25k annual breakpoint, per-acquirer breakdown.
UK-EEA cross-border interchange (2026)
PSR appeal status, current rates, merchant impact, what to do now.
Visa and Mastercard cross-border update 2026
Scheme fee changes, UK-domestic vs cross-border treatment, PSR ruling fallout.
Operations and compliance
Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) and 3DS2
PSD2-retained rules, when SCA triggers, exemptions, conversion impact, liability shift.
UK card chargebacks 2026
Per-acquirer fee table, dispute lifecycle, friendly fraud, monitoring thresholds.
UK card-acquirer settlement schedules
Same-day vs T+1, rolling reserves, weekend posting, new-merchant holds.
MATCH list and TMF: UK merchant guide
13 MATCH reason codes, 5-year listing duration, removal routes, FOS escalation, high-risk-acquirer route.
PCI-DSS v4 for UK small merchants
SAQ-A vs SAQ-A-EP vs SAQ-B, what each scope covers, hosted-checkout vs self-hosted.
Ways to take payment
Virtual terminal UK (phone and MOTO payments)
Take card payments by phone with no hardware. Providers, keyed rates, PCI scope, fraud liability, and virtual terminal vs card machine vs payment link.
Payment gateways UK compared
Stripe, Adyen, Worldpay, Square Online, Shopify Payments. Online pricing, SCA / 3DS2 handling and which gateway fits ecommerce, subscriptions or high-risk.
Card surcharging UK: B2B vs B2C
Full B2C surcharge ban since 13 January 2018; B2B surcharges still legal with disclosure. Decision tree, consumer definition, how to implement legally.
Card-network rules
High-risk and specialist accounts
Offshore merchant accounts UK 2026
When an offshore merchant account helps and when it hurts. The tax and FCA realities, and why a UK specialist acquirer is usually the better route.
Peptide merchant account UK 2026
Why Stripe, PayPal and SumUp ban peptide sellers, which specialist UK acquirers underwrite research peptides, the rates and reserves to expect, and how to get placed without freezing funds.
Is it legal to sell peptides in the UK?
The UK research-chemical rule, the MHRA line on human-use claims, where GLP-1 peptides differ, and what the legal position means for taking card payments.
How to start a peptide business in the UK
A practical UK launch guide: choosing your model, the legal presentation, sourcing with COAs, and solving the high-risk payment problem before launch rather than after a freeze.
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