The Best Mobile Credit Card Processing Solutions of 2024

Pricing and Terms

If your business doesn’t accept many credit card payments each month, you may find it expensive to work with a full-service processor that has a monthly minimum processing requirement and a handful of regular fees, such as monthly statement and gateway fees and an annual PCI compliance fee. Choosing a processor like PayPal that has flat-rate pricing and pay-as-you-go terms can save you money, since you’ll only pay for the processing you use.

PayPal is very transparent with its pricing; you can find all of its rates and fees posted on its website. Here’s what you’ll pay when you accept credit cards using PayPal:

Accepting credit card payments in person using PayPal Here

• 7% of each transaction for credit cards, debit cards, and contactless payments you accept in person using the PayPal Here app and a card reader. The rate is the same, no matter what type of credit or debit card your customer uses – including mobile wallets like Apple Pay, Google Pay and Samsung Pay.
• 5% + $0.15 of each transaction for the credit and debit cards you manually key or scan in using the PayPal Here app. If you don’t yet have a card reader and need to accept credit card payments, you’ll pay this higher rate.

To promote its QR code payments, PayPal is charging a reduced rate of 2.2% of each QR code transaction until March 31, 2021. After that, these transactions will cost 2.7% like other card-present transactions.

Accepting payments online or by invoice

• 9% + $0.30 of each online transaction for credit and debit cards you accept through your website or digital invoice.

Accepting credit and debit card payments using a virtual terminal

• 1% + $0.30 of each transaction for the Visa, Mastercard and Discover payment cards you accept using PayPal’s virtual terminal (such as payments you accept over the phone, by fax or by mail).
• 5% of each transaction for the American Express cards you accept using PayPal’s virtual terminal, PayPal Payments Advanced or PayPal Payments Pro.

You’ll notice that PayPal’s transaction fees are somewhat higher than those of full-service processors. However, it’s still more cost-effective if your monthly processing volume is low, because you aren’t paying account fees. If you use a full-service processor, you pay around $20 per month in account maintenance fees and have a monthly minimum of $25, which can be difficult to meet if you process less than $2,500 per month.

Here are the fees you won’t pay using PayPal:

• No application fee or setup fee
• No monthly fee for statements and customer support
• No monthly minimum processing requirement
• No gateway setup fee
• No annual fee
• No annual or monthly PCI compliance fee
• No early termination or account closure fee

Incidental and Optional Fees

PayPal offers some additional services that cost extra. For example, if you need the money from your transactions immediately, you can pay 1% for an instant transfer from your PayPal balance to your bank account. Regular bank transfers are free and usually take one business day.

Here are some more optional services that carry fees:

• Chargebacks: $20 per incidence
• Recurring billing service: $10 per month
• Advanced fraud protection services: $10 per month plus $0.05 per transaction
• PayPal Payments Pro: $30 per month (allows you to accept payments directly on your website and includes a virtual terminal)
• Virtual terminal: $30 per month
• Cross-border fee: 5% is added to the transaction fee when you accept payments from customers outside the U.S. If your cross-border payments require currency conversion, it costs an additional 3%.

Special pricing is available for certain business types:

• Registered charities pay 2.2% + $0.30 for online donations; in-person donations cost the same as regular business accounts, at 2.7% for card-present transactions and 3.5% + $0.30 for keyed-in transactions.
• Businesses with transactions less than $10 may qualify for PayPal’s micropayment fees, which are 5% + $0.05 per transaction.

Terms

There’s no long-term contract requirement with PayPal; you accept a user agreement instead of signing a contract. As your business grows and your processing volume increases to the point where the savings from lower rates would surpass the account fees, you can close your PayPal account and switch to a full-service processor at any time without penalty.

Features

One of the best things about PayPal is that you can accept various payment methods simultaneously – on the go and at brick-and-mortar locations using QR codes or a card reader and online using invoices, social media, and your website – and the money from all of your transactions goes into one PayPal account, making it easier to manage your finances.

Here are more features PayPal offers:

Free Basic POS Software

To accept payments in person at your business or on the go, you install the PayPal Here app on your phone or tablet and attach a credit card reader. This mobile credit card processing app includes point-of-sale features that help you run your business. Here’s what it can do:

• Accept credit and debit card payments
• Record checks and cash payments
• Create an inventory list and add photos of items
• Add multiple users to your account and manage their access
• Set taxes, suggest tip amounts, apply discounts at checkout
• Email, text or print receipts
• Refund sales
• Generate sales reports
• Transfer funds from your PayPal balance to your bank account or your PayPal Business Debit Mastercard

Card Reader Options

PayPal has several card readers for you to choose from. They are all EMV compliant and connect to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth. PayPal also sells receipt printers, cash drawers, stands and cases.

• Chip and swipe reader: $24.99. You can accept magstripe and chip cards with this reader.
• Chip and tap card reader: $59.99 (or $79.99 with charging stand). This model accepts magstripe, chip, and contactless credit and debit cards. It also accepts mobile payments from Apple Pay and Google Pay.
• Chip card reader: $99.99. This reader accepts magstripe, chip, and contactless cards as well as mobile wallets. It’s the only model with a screen and a built-in PIN pad.

PayPal Integrations

One of PayPal’s strengths is that it integrates with many business systems and applications. Here’s a small sampling of the business solutions PayPal integrates with:

• POS systems like Revel Systems, TouchBistro and Vend
• E-commerce platforms, such as 3dcart, BigCommerce and Shopify
• Accounting software, including QuickBooks, Xero and Zoho Books

Online Payments

PayPal makes it easy to accept credit, debit and PayPal payments online. It offers a few different ways to do this, including a payment gateway option.

• PayPal Checkout: There’s no monthly fee for this plan; all you pay are the processing fees for your online transactions. On this plan, you place buy buttons on your website that redirect your customer to a checkout page hosted by PayPal. Some e-commerce platforms already have this feature built into their platforms.
• PayPal Payments Pro: This plan costs $30 per month. With it, you can design and host the checkout pages yourself. It includes a virtual terminal that you can use to key in credit card information for sales made over the phone or by fax or mail.
• Payflow (payment gateway): If you need a payment gateway for your website and want it to have a secure payment template that you can embed, Payflow Link may be a good option for you. With it, you can accept credit and debit card payments as well as PayPal payments on your website. It costs 10 cents per transaction (above the processing rates you pay your other processor), with no setup or monthly fees. If you require a fully customizable solution, you can get Payflow Pro for $25 per month, but this option has a $99 setup fee.
• Pay in 4 and PayPal Credit: These programs pay you upfront but allow your customers to pay for their purchases over time, either in four payments or over a set period.
• Sell on Social: This feature lets you create shopping links for your product listing that you can share on social media channels, chat and email.

Online Invoicing

You can create and send invoices by logging in to PayPal’s website with your business account credentials or by using the PayPal Business app on your phone or tablet. Your customer receives an email with a link, clicks the link to open the invoice, and can then choose to pay the invoice using their credit or debit card or their PayPal account. There’s no cost to send invoices; when receiving payments from your customers, you pay 2.9% + $0.30 for each transaction.

• Invoicing with Messenger: If you and your customers use Facebook, you can create invoices in Messenger to send to your customers. Your customers can click on the invoice in your message to pay it using their PayPal account.

• PayPal Commerce platform: Startups with online marketplaces, crowdfunding platforms and other e-commerce solutions can use this advanced payment platform to allow their sellers to accept payments from buyers around the globe.

If your small business sells to customers in other countries, PayPal is a good processor for you. It accepts payments made in over 100 currencies around the world.

Additional Considerations

Here’s some additional information about PayPal for you to keep in mind as you decide which payment processing company is the best fit for your business.

Customer Service

If you run into an issue using PayPal, you can call or email the company 24/7 or use the self-help resources on its website, which include live chat, FAQs, a searchable knowledgebase, how-to guides, a community forum, and its Resolution Center that assists with customer disputes. Although the company lists extended phone hours on its website, a company rep told us that you can actually reach a customer service representative 24/7, though if you call after hours, your call may be routed to one of its international offices.

Security

PayPal uses multiple security measures to keep your customers’ payment data safe, including end-to-end encryption and 24/7 transaction monitoring. It complies with the data security standards established by the Payment Card Industry, and most of its card readers are EMV compliant, which deters counterfeit fraud. Your account is password-protected, and you can add a second authentication factor using PayPal Security Key, which sends a unique one-time PIN code to your phone via text.

PayPal Business Debit Mastercard

Using this card, you can spend your PayPal funds at any store and receive 1% cash back on qualified purchases. You can also withdraw cash from in-network ATMs. There’s no annual fee for this business debit card.

PayPal Business Loan and PayPal Working Capital

Eligible merchants can receive small business loans and working capital through PayPal.

Drawbacks

PayPal is a great solution for low-volume businesses, as it allows you to accept credit, debit, and PayPal payments in person and online on a pay-as-you-go basis, with no monthly or annual account maintenance fees and no long-term contract. However, if you go beyond the basic credit card processing services, there are lots of little fees to keep track of, and they could add up quickly. To PayPal’s credit, it lists these fees in full on its website.

Another issue to be aware of is held funds and frozen accounts, which is the cause of many online complaints. This problem isn’t exclusive to PayPal – you’ll find similar complaints about other payment facilitators online – as this type of payment processor tends to be more wary of fraud than traditional processors, and irregular patterns in your processing, such as spikes in transaction amounts or frequency, can raise red flags.

Following PayPal’s best practices for sellers reduces the likelihood of having your money held in a reserve account. Also make sure that the products or services your business provides are within PayPal’s acceptable use policy; otherwise, your funds may be frozen or your account closed without notice.

Pricing and Terms

Shopify Payments is very transparent with its pricing and terms. On its website, you can find its rates, fees, and credit card processing hardware costs as well as its acceptable use policy and terms of service for both its payment processing service and e-commerce platform. This information makes it easier to determine whether Shopify Payments meets the specific needs of your business and fits your budget before spending time on the phone speaking with a sales rep. Shopify Payments uses the flat-rate pricing model and offers competitive transaction fees, especially on its higher-tier plans.

Rates

Here’s what it costs to accept credit and debit card transactions using Shopify Payments on each of Shopify’s main pricing plans. Custom processing fees are available for large, high-volume businesses through the Shopify Plus plan.

Shopify Lite and Basic Shopify plans:

• Cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.7%
• Cards you accept online or manually key in: 2.9% + $0.30

Shopify plan:

• Cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.5%
• Cards you accept online or manually key in: 2.6% + $0.30

Advanced Shopify plan:

• Cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.4%
• Cards you accept online or manually key in: 2.4% + $0.30

Fees

Unlike most mobile payment facilitators, Shopify charges a monthly fee to use its services. Although this fee is technically for Shopify’s POS and e-commerce software, you can’t use Shopify Payments without it. However, it gives you high-quality POS tools with your account and enables you to sell your goods and services online and in person. Each plan ‒ except the Lite plan – comes with a Shopify online store, which includes an e-commerce website and blog.

Monthly Fee

The monthly fee varies, depending on which plan you choose. If you pay upfront rather than month to month, you receive a 10% discount on an annual plan or a 20% discount on a two-year plan.

• Shopify Lite: $9. You can accept payments in person, on social media and on an existing website or blog.
• Basic Shopify: $29. In addition to the sales channels included with the Lite plan, you can accept payments on your Shopify online store. This plan supports two staff accounts.
• Shopify: $79. This includes all Basic plan features and supports five staff accounts.
• Advanced Shopify: $299. This includes all Shopify plan features and supports 15 staff accounts.
• Shopify Plus: Custom pricing is available for high-volume merchants.

Optional Fees

Some of Shopify’s optional services carry extra costs. Here are some examples.

• Custom domain names start at $11 per year. If you don’t already have a domain name for your website and prefer not to use the free MyShopify.com domain name that comes with your Shopify subscription, you can purchase one from the company.
• Some integrations, available through the Shopify App Store, carry monthly fees.
• If you choose to use an external payment provider or payment gateway instead of Shopify Payments, you will be charged a fee of 0.5% to 2%, depending on your plan.

Payout

It usually takes one or two business days for Shopify Payments to transfer your processed funds into your business bank account, which is on a par with other top credit card processing companies. You receive an email alert when your funds arrive. If you prefer to receive your funds weekly or monthly, you can set up a payout schedule.

Terms of Service

Shopify has month-to-month terms and allows you to upgrade to a higher plan or downgrade to a lower one at any time. A discount is available if you sign up and pay in advance for a one- or two-year term, but no refunds are available if you prepay and later cancel, so you want to make sure the service is a good fit for your business before you sign up for longer terms.

Shopify is a payment facilitator and sets you up as a submerchant under its master merchant account instead of providing you with your own merchant account, so rather than sign a contract, you agree to the company’s terms of service. You should read the Shopify Payments’ terms of service, the merchant terms of service and the acceptable use policy, which are posted online, before signing up for an account to make sure that you understand your responsibilities and verify that this payment processor supports your business type.

Like other mobile payment facilitators, Shopify Payments seeks to prevent fraudulent activity and minimize its risk of losing money. It will hold your funds or close your account if it feels there’s something suspicious about your account activity, if you have what it considers to be an excessive number of chargebacks or refunds, or if it expects that you will have an excessive number of chargebacks or refunds.

Also, like nearly every mobile credit card processor, there are many business types that Shopify doesn’t support. Before signing up for an account, you’ll want to verify that the goods and services your business sells aren’t on Shopify’s list of prohibited products or services. If they are, the company will close your account. You can find this list in Section B, paragraph five of the Payments Terms of Service.

Shopify Features

Shopify has two mobile apps, and you’ll use both to get the most from your Shopify Payments account. The Shopify POS app is for processing payments in person, and you can accept all major credit and debit cards with it. The Shopify app is for managing your sales data, orders, products, customers and staff. Both apps are available for Android and iOS phones and tablets. The Shopify app is also available for the Apple Watch, showing you an overview of your sales data. Here are some examples of things you can do with these apps:

• Accept credit and debit cards, including contactless cards and mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Record cash payments and checks
• Split tenders (accept two or more payment types for a transaction)
• Accept partial payments or deposits
• Accept tips
• Issue refunds
• Email or print receipts
• Set discounts and taxes
• Create customer profiles
• Manage products, add photos, organize into categories, track inventory

Processing Equipment Options

There are two mobile card readers available for use with Shopify Payments. Both options are EMV compliant, so you can accept chip cards and avoid liability for counterfeit fraud for the cards you accept in person.

• Chip and Swipe Reader: $29. This mobile credit card reader connects to your phone or tablet via Bluetooth, and is compatible with Android and iOS devices. With it, you can accept chip and magnetic stripe cards.
• Shopify Tap and Chip Reader: $49; charging dock: $39. This EMV- and PCI-certified mobile card reader connects via Bluetooth, and is compatible with Android and iOS devices. With it, you can accept chip cards, contactless cards and mobile payments like Apple Pay and Google Pay.

If you want to connect a receipt printer or barcode scanner to your phone or tablet, you’ll need to subscribe to the Shopify plan or higher.

Dashboard

The dashboard shows you an overview of your sales, and if you also have an online store or sell on social media, you can monitor your traffic. You can see which products sell best and which ones underperform. You can generate reports and export them to a spreadsheet or send them to your accountant.

Integrations

More than 1,200 apps are available in the Shopify App Store. You can add advanced features to your account and connect to third-party business applications that you may already use, such as accounting software like QuickBooks and email marketing services like Mailchimp.

Sell on Social Media

You can use Shopify to sell your products on Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Houzz, Instagram and Pinterest. Other sales channels you can sell on include Amazon and eBay. You can see all your sales channel options in the Shopify App Store.

No Signature Required

When you accept chip cards in person, you’re no longer required to capture signatures at checkout. Shopify allows you to opt in to this feature, which can speed up the checkout experience for your customers. However, you can continue to accept signatures if you prefer.

Additional Considerations

Shopify Payments is for business use only, so if you’re looking for a mobile credit card processing service that allows you to accept payments for personal or family use, you’ll need to choose a different processor.

Here’s more information to keep in mind before signing up with Shopify Payments.

Security

Shopify keeps your data secure by complying with Level 1 PCI data security, which has the most stringent security requirements for payment processors. Its card readers are EMV-certified, which has proven to be an effective tool against counterfeit fraud.

Additionally, the company provides fraud prevention tools for Shopify merchants, including fraud analysis indicators that identify potential issues, such as incorrect CVV codes or attempts to pay with multiple cards. It assigns a fraud recommendation for each order and flags orders it considers to be a medium or high risk on the Orders page for you to review. A free Fraud Filter app from Shopify is available on Shopify’s app store, as are multiple third-party fraud prevention apps, and Shopify Plus merchants can use Shopify Flow to create a workflow that notifies you when an order is created that raises red flags.

The company recently announced a new feature called Fraud Protect for Shopify Payments that analyzes online orders for fraudulent chargebacks. Exact pricing for this feature hasn’t yet been released, but the company notes that you’ll pay a small fee for each order it classifies as “protected.” Then, if there’s a chargeback for fraud on an order it flagged as safe, the company will handle the dispute and reimburse you the cost of the order, plus it takes care of the chargeback process for you.

Customer Support

You can reach customer service by phone 24/7, or by phone, email, live chat or Twitter. If you’d prefer to troubleshoot an issue yourself, the company provides multiple resources to help you, including guides and tutorials, a searchable knowledgebase, a user forum, and a blog.

Limitations

As with other mobile payment facilitators, you can find complaints online about Shopify Payments holding processed funds and closing accounts. You may be able to avoid these headaches by reading the terms of service for Shopify and Shopify Payments before signing up to make sure that your business type and the products you sell aren’t prohibited businesses. You also want to be aware of actions that raise red flags and may cause the company to hold your funds.

Here are some additional issues to consider before selecting Shopify Payments as your mobile credit card processor:

• Adding users to your account can be expensive. The number of staff accounts you can add corresponds with the pricing plan you choose.
• You’ll need to subscribe to the Shopify plan or higher if you want to connect to a receipt printer or barcode scanner.
• Not all Shopify POS apps are created equal. Although you can ring up sales and accept payments using an iPhone, iPad or Android device, you’ll need an iPad if you want to access every feature, as some are lacking on the iPhone and Android versions of the mobile app. You can view a device comparison chart on the company’s website.

Pricing and Terms

For small businesses that either haven’t accepted credit cards before, that process less than $3,000 per month or that have small average sales tickets, working with a mobile credit card processing company or account aggregator like SumUp can be a good solution. Here’s what you’ll pay when you use SumUp as your payment processor.

Processing Rates

No matter what brand of card your customer presents – American Express, Discover, Mastercard or Visa – you pay the same rate. There’s also no rate difference based on card type. Whether your customers pay using debit or credit, regular or rewards, personal or corporate cards, the transaction fees you pay are the same. The only variable that affects the SumUp’s credit card processing rate is how you accept the cards.

• Credit and debit cards you accept in person using a card reader: 2.75%
• Credit and debit cards you accept using the virtual terminal (card-not-present transactions): 3.25% + $0.15

Fees

There are no setup or hidden fees with your SumUp account. There are also no monthly fees, monthly gateway, statement or annual PCI compliance fees. There is only one incidental fee to be aware of, which is the $10 chargeback fee. The only time you’ll be charged for it is if you have a customer who disputes a transaction.

Payout

SumUp deposits money from your transactions, minus its fee, into your bank account within two business days. You set the frequency of your payouts to daily, weekly or monthly. After it deposits money into your bank account, it emails you a list of transactions included in the payout. You can also track payouts using the SumUp app and your account dashboard.

Terms of Service

Instead of a contract, SumUp has terms of service, and like every such document from a payment processor, you should read it before signing up for an account. The company provides its services on a pay-as-you-go basis, and you can close your account at any time without penalty.

Like other mobile credit card processing companies, there are some types of businesses that SumUp doesn’t support. To avoid having your funds held or your account closed without warning, read the terms of service to ensure you use your account in accordance with SumUp terms, and that your business type and the products or services you offer aren’t listed as a restricted business. It’s also worth noting that while SumUp can be used by individual sellers with even very small businesses – such as those who sell items at craft fairs a few times per year – it’s not a P2P service like Venmo and can’t be used to transfer funds from friends or family members.

Getting started with SumUp is easy and takes less than five minutes. You will need to provide an email address, shipping address and your payment details. Next, you ‘ll create a password for your account. Then, before you begin processing, you’ll need to provide some basic information about your business so the payment provider can verify that your business is legitimate. It will also need bank account information so it can deposit your payouts once you begin processing.

As you’re setting up your account, SumUp asks about your business structure. When you sign up for an account as a sole proprietor, you will be asked to provide the following information:

• Legal structure and business category
• Business name and address
• Home address, date of birth, Social Security number and mobile phone number
• Bank account

If your business is a partnership, LLC, cooperative or corporation, you’re asked to provide the above information as well as

• Your EIN
• Names of beneficial business owners
• Contact and personal information (address, date of birth, Social Security numbers and phone numbers) for authorized signatories
• Business bank account

SumUp Features

SumUp’s mobile app is available for iPhones, iPads and Android devices. Its features are more basic than those offered by some of its competitors, like Square, but here are some of the things you can do with it:

• Accept credit and debit card payments, including Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Issue refunds
• Print, email or text receipts
• Create a product catalog
• Add and edit sales tax rates
• Track sales and payments in real time
• Send customers SMS texts with a payment links

Processing Equipment Options

SumUp offers only one card reader, but you can use it to accept magstripe, chip, and contactless credit and debit cards as well as mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Pay. It connects to your smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, and the company says that with it, you can process more than 500 transactions on a single charge. It costs $19, which is the most affordable EMV/NFC card reader we’ve seen. Shipping is free, which is a nice perk, and it takes between two and three business days for the unit to arrive.

Dashboard

When you access your SumUp account online, you can find your account details and a dashboard that gives you a graphical overview of your transactions. You can see your sales revenue by day or week, by amount or number of transactions, and by payment type (credit card, debit card, cash). It also shows the most recent payout to your bank account. Your sales history is filterable and downloadable, making it easy to search for specific transactions. It also allows you to drill down to the sales details for each transaction.

Virtual Terminal

If you need to run a card-not-present transaction, such as when a customer gives you their credit card number over the phone or by email, you can use SumUp’s virtual terminal. This feature isn’t automatically provided with your account – you’ll need to call the company and fill out an application that requests some additional information about your business before you can have it set up, but there is no setup fee and no monthly fee if your request is approved.

Employee Accounts

From your SumUp account page, you can add employees to your account. Each employee has their own login credentials, and can accept credit card payments and view their sales histories. They can’t access your account, add or organize products, or add a separate bank account – all payouts are transferred to your bank account. From your account, you can review the sales histories for all the employees connected to your account.

Integrations

SumUp has an API and SDK, so your developer can integrate the service into your website or mobile app. Test accounts are also available for developers.

Additional Considerations

Here are some additional points to keep in mind as you decide which mobile credit card processing company is the right fit for your small business.

Security

SumUp is PCI-DSS certified, and its card reader is certified by PCI, EMV, Mastercard and Visa.

Customer Support

This mobile credit card processor has multiple customer support channels. On its website, it has a searchable knowledgebase, a blog, and a chatbot that answers questions about how to set up an account, the documentation that is required, pricing, and how the service works. It can also answer common questions that SumUp merchants have about their account, card reader and payouts.

Or, if you prefer to speak with a customer service rep, phone support is available Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. EST. The rep we spoke with said the company is looking at adding Saturday hours during the holiday season. When we called the company, posing as a small business owner as part of our testing, our call was answered promptly, and the rep we spoke with was helpful, friendly and answered our questions thoroughly.

Limitations

SumUp is simpler than some of its competitors and lacks nicer features like recurring payments and inventory tracking. Still, for small businesses that want a solid, basic payment processing solution to accept in-person credit card payments and don’t need advanced features, it’s a terrific option.

Like other mobile credit card processing services, some industries are prohibited, so you’ll want to read the terms of service and make sure your business type is supported before you sign up for an account. If your business type isn’t supported and you sign up anyway, you risk having your funds frozen or your account shut down without warning.