Barclays Card Machine Review

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Barclays Merchant Services is card machine provider that's big on flexibility. It marries lower-than-average transaction free and freedom from contracts. However, support channel shortcomings and the lack of checkout links keep it from being among the best out there and contribute to its 3/5 overall score in our independent research.

Our deep-dive, combined with our nearly 15 years of experience, allow us to give you key insights for you to decide whether this provider is the best choice to help you thrive in the current economic scenario.

If you’re short on time, you can use our free comparison tool. Through it, we can match you with trusted suppliers that will then contact you with bespoke quotes.

However, if you'd like to know more, just head to our detailed review below. In it, we cover our analysis of Barclays Merchant Services across several categories, including price, features, and customer support. We also compare its performance to that of other 10 competitors to see how it holds up.

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Barclays Merchant Services

Score

3.0

Best For

Flexible contracts

Monthly Fee

Face to face: From £15 – £29
Online: £20 – £75

Transaction fee

1.60%

Key Features

Available in a pay-as-you-go basis
Three reporting tools
Supports 96 currencies

How much does Barclays Merchant Services cost?

Barclays charges 1.60% for transactions and its account fees are between £15 to £29 for in-person fees, and between £20 to £75 for an online account. Barclays offers two hardware options that cost £10 +VAT per month and £29 +VAT per month.

Barclays scores the lowest for pricing in our research with a 2.3/5. It was beaten by Retail Merchant Services, which scores a perfect 5/5 and costs a minimum of £10 per month and 0.4% per debit card transaction. Retail Merchant Services is much more affordable, with cheaper transaction and account fees, making it well-suited for businesses that are looking to keep costs down. However, Retail Merchant Services don’t offer pay as you go contracts, which Barclays does. So, if this flexibility is important to you, Barclays is a better option.

The pros and cons of Barclays Merchant Services

Pros

Flexible contract

Cons

Poor customer service
Transaction fees could be lower

✔️Pro: Flexible contract

Of all of the contract providers in our research, Barclays is the only one that offers a pay-as-you-go option. This is a key feature for small businesses or startups that don’t want to lock into a lengthy and potentially expensive contract. The only provider in our research with a shorter contract is Dojo, which offers six-month contracts. Although its transaction fee is cheaper than Barclays at 1.4%, it doesn’t accept online transactions or multiple currencies. Dojo makes sense for your business if you’re happy to lock into a longer contract for cheaper transaction fees but, if you want the flexibility of a rolling contract, have an online store, or want to accept multiple currencies, Barclays is the better option.

❌ Con: Poor customer service

Barclays Merchant Services’ 1.3/5 customer score in our research indicates its poor quality of service to customers. A popular complaint from customers is that it’s difficult to cancel contracts and that they often incurred a fee for doing so. This is a complaint we found across the board for most payment providers as there are often stringent terms and conditions for cancelling a contract to avoid incurring a cancellation fee.

Barclays scores a 2.6/5 for its customer support because it lacks live chat and email support. You can contact the provider on the phone, but you have less options than other providers, such as Worldpay, which scores a 5/5. Worldpay offers both live chat and email support and its phone support is 24/7. While Worldpay’s customer support is better than Barclays, its contract is 18 months, which is pretty lengthy. If your business needs flexibility, Barclays is a better option, however, you should be aware that the customer service might not always be up to scratch.

❌ Con: Transaction fees could be lower

At 1.60% for each transaction, Barclay Merchant Services’ transaction fees beats the ones charged by mobile competitors such as Square (1.75%) and SumUp (1.69%) However, they're still a far cry steeper than Retail Merchant Services' 0.4% and Worldpay‘s 0.75%. To its credit though, its pay-as-you-go contract does offset this a little.

Barclays Merchant Services’ key features explained

Integrations and reporting

Barclays offers FreshBooks (accounting software) as an integration, although other providers in our research offer a lot more, such as Worldpay, which has over 100 integrations. Barclays Merchant Services’ one integration may be suitable for small businesses or businesses that don’t need a comprehensive system. However, if you have multiple locations or you're looking to grow, multiple integrations make this a lot easier.

Barclays Merchant Services’ reporting is made up of real-time transactions, transaction breakdowns, and transfer notifications. While this covers a lot of relevant data, this isn’t as in-depth as other reporting capabilities found in other providers. takepayments has several reporting options, including the ability to track cash received and real-time inventory tracking. Although the takepayments contract is 12 months long, lengthier than Barclays Merchant Services’ pay-as-you-go option. Depending on your business’s needs, you may not need such in-depth reporting but, if you do, takepayments could be a better fit than Barclays.

Compliance

Barclays Merchant Services transfers funds to your business bank account within three to five business days, which is fairly average for this industry. However, Worldpay transfers funds within 30 minutes. This super speedy transfer time is great for businesses that need the cash flow. It is worth noting that Worldpay’s contracts are much longer at 18 months, compared with Barclays pay-as-you-go option. If you’re happy to be tied down for a longer period of time to receive funds quicker, then Worldpay could be a good option.

Barclays offers two paid solutions for PCI compliance, one that costs £4.80 per month and the other costs £15 per month. While it’s good that this security exists, it may not be very budget-friendly to have to fork out extra cash for this. A better option might be takepayments or Dojo, which are PCI compliant and don’t require an additional fee for this feature. Dojo’s transfer times are much quicker than Barclays at 24 hours and its contract length is six months, shorter than takepayments’ 12 months, making Dojo a similar provider to Barclays, but more affordable.

What kind of business is Barclays Merchant Services best for?

We recommend Barclays for startups or small businesses because of its flexible contracts. It also accepts online payments and 96 currencies, making it suitable for businesses that want to or are currently expanding globally.

How does Barclays Merchant Services compare with its competitors?

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Barclays Merchant Services	takepayments	Retail Merchant Services	Worldpay	Dojo
Best For Flexible contracts	Best For Features	Best For Low transaction fees on card payments	Best For Integrations	Best For Scalability
Monthly Fee Face to face: From £15 – £29 Online: £20 – £75	Monthly Fee From £20 + VAT	Monthly Fee From £10 + VAT	Monthly Fee From £9.95 + VAT	Monthly Fee From £24.95 + VAT
Transaction fee 1.60%	Transaction fee Bespoke – based on quote	Transaction fee 0.4% debit cards 0.8% credit cards 0.79% + 10p online	Transaction fee Between 0.75% and 2.75% (based on quote)	Transaction fee 1.4% credit & debit cards
Key Features Available in a pay-as-you-go basis Three reporting tools Supports 96 currencies	Key Features Lots of hardware choices Enhanced security Eight reporting tools Support 170 currencies	Key Features Real-time data insights 100 currencies Negotiable fees and custom rates	Key Features 24/7 phone support Fastest payout time in our research 100 third-party integrations Support 120 currencies	Key Features Simple compliance procedure Support available via phone and live chat Two reporting tools

Price

At 1.60% for a transaction fee and £15 to £29 for in-person account fees, Barclays isn’t the cheapest provider on the market. In fact, out of all of the providers in our research, it’s the most expensive, scoring a 2.3/5. If low transaction fees are important to you, Retail Merchant Services, which scores 5/5, would be a better choice. It is worth noting that it does lack the pay-as-you-go option that Barclays has, so you’ll be tied into a lengthy contract.

Features

Barclays scores a 3.6/5 for its features and while Barclays doesn’t offer a ton of reporting options, it’s still suitable for businesses that don’t need comprehensive reporting. If you are looking for this, takepayments could be a better option with a score of 5/5 for features because it offers in-depth reporting. takepayments also offers 16 integrations, a lot heftier than Barclays Merchant Services’ one accounting software integration (Freshbooks). For startups or small businesses, it may not be an issue that Barclays Merchant Services doesn’t have comprehensive features because of its flexible contract that might be more important for your business. If you’re more established and have plans to scale up, a feature-rich provider like takepayments could be a better fit.

Does Barclays Merchant Services have good customer reviews?

Barclays Merchant Services scores a very low 1.3/5 for customer score in our research, which may hinder its chance to wow potential new merchants into becoming its clients.

Part of it is circumstantial, as the online review aggregators we've checked to consolidate that score – such as Trustpilot – compile reviews of all of the services offered by Barclays, not only of its merchant-related ones. That means that banking shortcomings are likely to have hurt Barclays Merchant Services scores.

However, we did pick up two mainstays of its reviews: on one hand, customers with support issues or unable to cancel contracts. On the other, customers that have found Barclays easy to use and are happy with the support they received. We've included examples of each of these below.

Barclay Bank Customer Service Team need to improve their phone banking helpline. 3 days of trying to get through. If you phone between 9.30am and 10.30am and request a call back it works. Later in the day the call back doesn't work probably due to number of requests and 40-50 minutes with no answers. The staff are pleasant and helpful when you finally speak to them but the phone system is overloaded and Barclays need to improve the waiting times. (sic)

Veronica Bailey, Barclayscard user

- Source: Trustpilot

Our methodology

To give a rundown on Barclays Merchant Services, we looked at five key areas during our in-depth research: price, features, compliance, customer support, and customer score. We also looked at five of its direct competitors to see how it compares with the wider market. We then consolidated the data into the scores we discuss throughout the article.

Based on our findings, we could establish flexibility as Barclays Merchant Services’ biggest asset. Its wide multicurrency support combined with key reporting tools helped it score 3.6/5 for features – the highest category score it received. These results allow us to reassure you of the quality of Barclays Merchant Services' offerings.

Verdict

Barclays Merchant Services is a good fit for ventures that can benefit from the flexibility of pay as you go, especially small businesses or startups. Its lack of a contract puts it on par with mobile card machine providers such as Square and Zettle, but Barclays Merchant Services packs a 1.60% transaction fee that's lower than these competitors' (both charge 1.75%).

However, Barclays Merchant Services scores an overall 3/5 in our research, being mainly let down by its poor customer service. Also, among the traditional card machine providers we checked, its transaction fees are quite high. For comparison, Retail Merchant Services has lower transaction fees (they start at 0.4%) and takepayments has better customer support. However, both lack the pay-as-you-go option that Barclays Merchant Services has.

If you’re not sure if Barclays is ideal for your business, use our free comparison tool. Through it, we can match you with trusted suppliers that will then contact you with bespoke quotes.

FAQs

How do I contact Barclays Merchant Services?

You can contact them directly by phone.

How long does it take for a merchant to receive funds?

It can take merchants as quick as the next working day to receive funds, if payments are taken before 9pm. However, most merchants will receive funds within one to two working days, and sometimes up to five working days.

Do merchants get charged for declined transactions?

Although we can’t confirm if Barclays Merchant Services charges for declined transactions, generally most merchant services won’t because there is no transaction to charge.

What are Barclaycard merchant fees?

Barclaycard merchant fees are the transaction fees the provider charge for each transaction: 1.60%.

How do I raise a merchant dispute on Barclaycard?

You can raise a merchant dispute on Barclaycard by contacting its Disputes Team on 0800 008 008 or by emailing the case to GCPDisputes@barclaycard.co.uk. If you choose the latter, you must include your surname and the last 12 digits of your card number in the email subject line.

How long does a merchant have to respond to a credit card dispute?

Merchants have up to 45 days to respond to credit card disputes, after which merchant could be liable to pay chargebacks fees.

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