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Why card readers are the future for small businesses

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A shopkeeper happily takes a contactless payment from a customer holding a phone, with a small cash box set aside — Illustration only. It does not show any real provider or product.

Last checked: 20 Oct 2026 · Sources linked below

Fewer customers carry cash, and more expect to tap a card or phone. Here's what the published data and research say, and what it might mean for a small business.

💳 The UK has moved to cards

In 2024, card payments made up 64% of all UK payments, and debit cards were the most used payment method, with 26.1 billion payments (UK Finance, Payment Markets Report 2025).
Cash fell below 10% of all payments for the first time, down to 4.4 billion payments from 6 billion in 2023 (UK Finance).
There were 18.9 billion contactless card payments, and 57% of UK adults used a mobile wallet, up from 42% in 2023 (UK Finance).
UK Finance forecasts that by 2034 cards will make up about 67% of payments and cash only about 4% (report summary, PDF).

Cash still matters to some people. UK Finance estimates that around 1.2 million people mainly used cash in 2024. Accepting cards and cash together means no customer gets turned away.

🚶 Don't send customers to a cashpoint

If you only take cash, a customer without any has to walk off to find a cash machine, possibly past your competitors. Some won't come back. A card reader lets you take the sale there and then.

☕ Convenience, impulse buys and add-ons

Tapping a card or phone is quick, so it's easy to say yes to an extra coffee, a second item or an upgrade without checking how much cash is left. That makes it easier to offer add-ons at the till. Whether it raises your sales depends on your business.

🧠 The psychology: the "pain of paying"

Researchers have looked at whether the way people pay changes how much they spend:

Prelec & Simester (2001), in Marketing Letters: in studies with real transactions, willingness to pay could be higher when people were told to pay by credit card rather than cash, sometimes by a lot ("up to 100%"). In their second study, though, the effect didn't always appear (abstract).
Raghubir & Srivastava (2008), in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied: payment methods that make money leaving your pocket feel "less vivid" than cash can lower the barrier to spending. The effect shrank when people were made aware of the cost (journal record; authors' summary).

These were controlled studies, mostly with US students, and they looked at credit cards and other non-cash payment methods. They don't show that taking cards will raise any particular business's sales. We're not promoting credit cards or borrowing. This is about you accepting card payments from customers.

🧮 Illustrative example: what could a little extra per customer add up to?

This is an illustrative example, not a prediction. Whether card payments lead to any extra spending in your business depends on your customers, products and prices.

Customers per week Extra spend per customer (£) Card fee (%)

	Per day (7-day week)	Per week	Per month (×52÷12)	Per year (×52)

"After card fee" takes the fee off the extra spend only, for example 1.69% (SumUp pay-as-you-go, checked 19 Oct 2026). It doesn't include hardware, VAT or the cost of the goods you sell.

Next steps

Compare no-contract, pay-as-you-go card readers in our comparison, or check monthly fees in the fee calculator.

SumUp offers: SumUp runs time-limited hardware offers. On 26 Oct 2026 we saw sale prices below its usual reader prices. Offers may end without notice, so check SumUp's card reader page for the current price (usual prices Solo Lite £25, Solo £79, Terminal £135 ex VAT, checked 28 Oct 2026).

Last checked: 20 Oct 2026. Card fees are from official provider pages, checked 19 Oct 2026, ex VAT. General information, not financial advice.