New to card payments

More convenience for your customers, more sales for your business - discover the benefits of accepting card payments, how the process works and how to get started.

Why card payments matter

76% of all retail sales in the UK are made by card.
The average card transaction value is around £43.
In 2016, total card spending was £647 billion.
Card payments are growing by more than 4% every year.

Sources: The UK Cards Association and Card Expenditure Statistics December 2016

How do card payments work? expandable section
A card transaction is made up of two main stages:

Authorisation

Clearing and settlement

Stage 1: Authorisation

A customer uses their card to pay for a product or service.

The acquirer (e.g. Lloyds Bank Cardnet) transmits the payment information securely to the card scheme (e.g. Visa).

The card network checks with the issuing bank to see whether the customer has enough funds to make the purchase.

Stage 2: Clearing and settlement

If authorised, the acquirer credits the merchant’s account and transmits the transaction information to the card scheme for settlement.

The card scheme pays the acquirer, subtracting interchange fees, and informs the customer’s bank to deduct the payment amount from the account.
What equipment do you need? expandable section
The tools you need to accept card payments depends on how your business operates.

Face-to-face payments — You’ll need a physical card machine. Your options include standard countertop machines, portable Bluetooth machines and mobile SIM card handsets.

Over-the-phone and mail order payments — You’ll need a virtual card machine to securely process the card information customers’ provide over the phone.

Online payments — In addition to an eCommerce-enabled website, you’ll need a payment gateway to process the transactions and an acquiring bank to settle the funds in your account.
What is PCI DSS? expandable section

Any business that processes card transactions is required to meet the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards. PCI DSS is a set of industry standards designed to ensure merchants store and process cardholder data securely.

Find out more about PCI DSS

How much does it cost to accept card payments?

As no two businesses are the same, Lloyds Bank Cardnet works with you to ensure we provide the right service at the right price.

Your joining fee covers setting up your account and includes a minimum 6-month agreement (you can cancel this contract before the 6 months are up, but there will be a fee applicable – for more information see our terms and conditions).
Credit cards are charged as a percentage of the value of payments.
Debit cards are charged as a pence or percentage for each transaction.
Your card machine rental will depend on which model you choose. Please note that the card machine rental contract is usually longer than the minimum 6-month agreement term for your merchant account. A typical minimum term for the card machine agreement can vary between 18 – 48 months. A full range of options will be provided to you by the Cardnet representative.

We can discuss our charges with you in more detail when you contact us.

Find out more about accepting payments with Cardnet

Interchange fees explained

For every card payment you accept, you’re charged a processing fee by the issuing bank. These ‘Interchange fees’ are set by the card schemes — Visa, Mastercard, etc. — and differ depending on a range of factors, including card type and the country where the transaction is made. For credit cards, you typically pay a small percentage of the transaction amount. For debit cards, it’s often a flat fee.

As part of the Cardnet service, we integrate Interchange charges into your merchant service fee and pass them on to the issuing bank. For more information on how Interchange fees contribute to your monthly statement, call us on 01268 567 100 (lines are open Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm) to speak with a member of our team.

What you pay

Our table document summarises the various Visa and MasterCard Interchange rates for transactions made in the UK, within the European Economic Area (Intra) and elsewhere in the world (Inter).

Download the table of Interchange rates (PDF, 159KB, accurate as of January 2022)

Contact us

Case studies

From global events to local businesses, Lloyds Bank Cardnet clients have benefited from our flexible service and modern technology.

View their stories here

Accepting card payments

Whether you trade face-to-face, over the phone, online or a combination of these, we have the tools and support you need.

Find a payment solution that suits your business

Learn the Key Terms

Acquiring Bank / Acquirer - A financial institution that processes card payments on a merchant’s behalf, such as Lloyds Bank Cardnet.

Issuing bank - The bank (or financial institution) that issued a customer with their card and maintains a contract with them for repayment of card transactions.

Interchange fee - The fee an acquirer (e.g. Lloyds Bank Cardnet) pays the customer’s bank (also referred to as the ‘issuing bank’) to cover the processing costs of each card transaction. Interchange fees are set by the Card Schemes.

Learn more key terms in our glossary

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Who looks after your personal information

Your personal information will be held by Cardnet which trades as Cardnet, part of the Lloyds Banking Group. More information on the Group can be found at www.lloydsbankinggroup.com

How we use your personal information

We will use your personal information:

to provide products and services, manage your relationship with us and comply with any laws or regulations we are subject to (for example the laws that prevent financial crime or the regulatory requirements governing the products we offer).
for other purposes including improving our services, exercising our rights in relation to agreements and contracts and identifying products and services that may be of interest.

To support us with the above we analyse information we know about you and how you use our products and services, including some automated decision making. You can find out more about how we do this, and in what circumstances you can ask us to stop, in our full privacy notice.

Who we share your personal information with

Your personal information will be shared within Lloyds Banking Group and other companies that provide services to you or us, so that we and any other companies in our Group can look after your relationship with us. By sharing this information it enables us to better understand our customers’ needs, run accounts and policies, and provide products and services efficiently. This processing may include activities which take place outside of the European Economic Area. If this is the case we will ensure appropriate safeguards are in place to protect your personal information.

You can find out more about how we share your personal information with credit reference agencies below and can access more information about how else we share your information in our full privacy notice.

Where we collect your personal information from

We will collect personal information about you from a number of sources including: information given to us on application forms, when you talk to us in branch, over the phone or through the device you use and when new services are requested. from analysis of how you operate our products and services, including the frequency, nature, location, origin and recipients of any payments. from or through other organisations (for example card associations, credit reference agencies, insurance companies, retailers, comparison websites, social media and fraud prevention agencies).

In certain circumstances we may also use information about health or criminal convictions but we will only do this where allowed by law or if you give us your consent.

You can find out more about where we collect personal information about you from in our full privacy notice.

Do you have to give us your personal information

We may be required by law, or as a consequence of any contractual relationship we have, to collect certain personal information. Failure to provide this information may prevent or delay us fulfilling these obligations or performing services.

What rights you have over your personal information

The law gives you a number of rights in relation to your personal information including:

the right to access the personal information we have about you. This includes information from application forms, statements, correspondence and call recordings.
the right to get us to correct personal information that is wrong or incomplete.
in certain circumstances, the right to ask us to stop using or delete your personal information.

From 25 May 2018 you will have the right to receive any personal information we have collected from you in an easily re-usable format when it’s processed on certain grounds, such as consent or for contractual reasons. You can also ask us to pass this information on to another organisation.

You can find out more about these rights and how you can exercise them in our full privacy notice.

Other individuals you have financial links with

We may also collect personal information about other individuals who you have a financial link with. This may include people who you have joint accounts or policies with such as your partner/spouse, dependents, beneficiaries or people you have commercial links to, for example other directors or officers of your company. We will collect this information to assess any applications, provide the services requested and to carry out credit reference and fraud prevention checks. You can find out more about how we process personal information about individuals with whom you have a financial link in our full privacy notice.

How we use credit reference agencies

In order to process your application we may supply your personal information to credit reference agencies (CRAs) including how you use our products and services and they will give us information about you, such as about your financial history. We do this to assess creditworthiness and product suitability, check your identity, manage your account, trace and recover debts and prevent criminal activity.

We may also continue to exchange information about you with CRAs on an ongoing basis, including about your settled accounts and any debts not fully repaid on time, information on funds going into the account, the balance on the account and, if you borrow, details of your repayments or whether you repay in full and on time.

CRAs will share your information with other organisations, for example other organisations you ask to provide you with products and services. Your data will also be linked to the data of any joint applicants or other financial associates as explained above.

You can find out more about the identities of the CRAs, and the ways in which they use and share personal information, in our full privacy notice.

How we use fraud prevention agencies

The personal information we have collected from you and anyone you have a financial link with may be shared with fraud prevention agencies who will use it to prevent fraud and money laundering and to verify your identity. If fraud is detected, you could be refused certain services, finance or employment. Further details of how your information will be used by us and these fraud prevention agencies, and your data protection rights, can be found in our full privacy notice.

Our full privacy notice

It is important that you understand how the personal information you give us will be used. Therefore, we strongly advise that you read our full privacy notice, which you can find at https://lloydsbankcardnet.com/privacy/ or you can ask us for a copy.

How you can contact us

If you have any questions or require more information about how we use your personal information please contact us using https://lloydsbankcardnet.com/. You can also call us on 01268 567100. If you feel we have not answered your question Lloyds Banking Group has a Group Data Privacy Officer, who you can contact on 01268 567100 and tell us you want to speak to our Data Privacy Officer.

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This notice was last updated in April 2018.

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