What does a mobile payment terminal cost?

When you buy a payment terminal, you pay for processing your transactions on top of the purchase price. At Buckaroo, you pay a monthly subscription per device, plus a fee per card transaction starting at €0.12. If you buy the device, you pay a one-time fee from €169,00 and your subscription is lower (from €12.85 per month). If you lease, you invest nothing upfront, but your subscription costs more (from €19.65 per month). You can also rent from around €19  per day.  Don't want a device at all? Then you can install  Tap to Pay on your own Android phone for €3,70 per month.

A few real-world examples. A market vendor using a Buck Mini 4G pays about €18.60 per month. A hospitality business using a Buck Smart Plus and processing 500 card payments pays about €60.30. The table below explains the costs in more detail. 

What makes up the costs?

The price of a mobile payment terminal is not a fixed standard amount. The rate is made up of several costs. We explain them below. 

Buy, lease or rent?

Buy: purchase from €169,00, subscription from €12.85 per month

Buying is cheaper once you use the device for more than about two years. You invest once, after which your subscription is at its lowest and the device is yours. Popular mobile models are the Buck Mini 4G and the Buck Smart. Both work wirelessly and accept contactless payments, Apple Pay and Google Pay.

Lease: no purchase, subscription from €19.65 per month

If you choose to lease, you spread the costs. You invest nothing upfront and can switch to another device more easily. The trade-off is a higher monthly fee. Leasing can also be useful if you need the device for a  longer period, but not forever. Think of a pop-up store, or a business that is being handed over. The longer your term, the lower your monthly fee: with five years you pay clearly less than with one year.

Rent: around €19 per day

Renting only pays off for temporary use: an event, a street fair, a trade fair or a peak week. You pay per day and aren't tied to anything. For ongoing use, the costs add up quickly, because one day of renting costs about as much as a full month of leasing.

When comparing, look at the total costs, not just the purchase price. A cheap device with high subscription costs can cost more in the long run than a device with a higher purchase price and lower subscription costs. We wrote about this earlier in how a cheap payment terminal can end up costing more.

What do you pay per card transaction?

On top of your device, you pay per card payment. Without a bundle, that's €0.12 per transaction. Do you receive card payments regularly? Then take a transaction bundle. It saves you a lot. You pay for the transactions in advance: the monthly price divided by the number of transactions is exactly your rate.

Important detail: you always pay a fixed amount for your transaction bundle, never a percentage of your revenue. A €800 bill costs you the same as an €8 bill. With providers that charge a percentage, your bill grows along with your revenue. If you exceed your bundle, the standard rate of €0.12 per transaction applies again. 

Two examples

What does this look like in practice? Once again, we'll walk through two examples: the market trader and the hospitality business. 

Market trader, around 40 card payments per month

For the market trader, the Buck Mini 4G is a good option. It's a small device and it runs on 4G. It's also affordable to buy. He buys it for €169.00, plus a €58.00 registration fee. 

• Buck Mini 4G subscription: €12.85

• PCI Compliance Fee: €0.95

• 40 transactions without a bundle: 40 × €0.12 = €4.80

In total, he pays €18.60 per month, plus €227.00 one-off. Because the market trader processes fewer than 50 transactions per month, a bundle doesn't save him money. A bundle of 50 transactions costs €4.75, so the saving would be less than 5 cents. 

Hospitality business, around 500 card payments per month

In this case, the Buck Smart Plus, with a built-in receipt printer, is a good option. The device costs €470.00, plus a €58.00 registration fee. 

• Buck Smart Plus subscription: €18.85

• PCI Compliance Fee: €0.95

• Bundle of 0 to 500 transactions: €40.50

Together, these costs come to €60.30 per month. Without a bundle, the owner would pay 500 × €0.12 = €60.00 in transaction fees. That brings the total to €79.80. With a bundle, they save €19.50 per month, or €234 per year.

The rule of thumb: below fifty transactions per month, you don't need a bundle. Processing more than 50 transactions per month? Then choose a bundle. 

When should you lease?

Leasing can seem cheaper because you pay nothing upfront. Over the full term, that's usually not the case, because the subscription costs are higher. Here's an example to show this. We'll use a five-year lease contract with the Buck Mini 4G. 

• Buy: €169.00 one-off, then €12.85 per month

• Lease: nothing upfront, then €19.65 per month

The difference is €6.80 per month. That means the €169.00 purchase cost pays for itself after about 25 months. Using the device for longer? Then buying is the better deal. If you use it for five years, you pay €940. If you lease the device for those same five years, you pay €1,179. So in this situation, buying the device saves you €239. 

In short: if you use the device for more than two years, buying is cheaper. If you're not sure how long you'll want to use it, or you'd rather not invest upfront, leasing buys you flexibility.

No hardware: accept card payments with your own phone

Not everyone needs a payment terminal. With Tap to Pay, you accept card payments through an app on your own phone. Your customer holds their card, phone or watch against your screen and the payment is processed. With Tap to Pay, there's no device to buy, so there's no delivery time either. 

Please note: this feature is available on Android devices with an NFC chip. Support for iOS is planned but not yet available. For now, iPhone users can use a compact payment terminal, such as the Buck Mini 4G.

Tap to Pay is a good fit for market vendors and mobile traders, delivery services, freelancers, and as an extra checkout on a busy terrace at peak times. This solution costs €3,70 per month. Because you don't need a payment terminal, you pay no device subscription. That makes Tap to Pay the most affordable way to start accepting card payments.

Already have a payment terminal from another provider? In many cases, you can switch your transaction processing to Buckaroo. You simply keep using your current device with Buckaroo's service. The costs of our transaction service are the same as those for Tap to Pay. 

What suits your business?

If you take payments every day, buying is usually the cheapest option and leasing the most flexible. Only need the device for a few days? Then renting is the best option. If you occasionally need to accept payments on the go, Tap to Pay is the cheapest way to get started.

On the pricing page, you'll find a full overview of all rates. Place a complete order before 2:00 p.m. and in most cases you can start accepting card payments the next business day.

Frequently asked questions about the cost of a mobile payment terminal