Getting paid, 29 October 2026
What's the best way for a tradesman to take payment? Card, GoCardless or payment links
For most small trade firms, the fastest way to get paid is a payment link on the invoice for one-off domestic jobs, a card reader for payment on the day, and Direct Debit for service plans and regular customers. Bank transfer is free but waits on the customer. On published UK rates in October 2026, card fees run from about 1.5% to 2.8%, and GoCardless Direct Debit from 1% plus 20p, capped at £4 on its Standard plan.
Which payment method suits which job?
Pick by the job, not by the provider. The question is when you want the money and who has to act to send it.
| Method | Who acts | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Card reader or tap to pay | Customer, on the day | Call-outs, repairs, small installs | Card fees on every job |
| Payment link on invoice | Customer, when they open it | Deposits, final invoices, remote customers | They still have to click it |
| Direct Debit | You, on the due date | Service plans, monthly maintenance, repeat clients | Customer sets up a mandate once |
| Bank transfer | Customer | Commercial clients, large stage payments | No prompt to pay, and you match it to the invoice yourself |
Set up a mandate once and collect each service or monthly payment on its due date. GoCardless connects to Xero invoices.
Take payment before you leave site. The fee is the price of not chasing.
Commercial clients usually pay by BACS on their payment run. Put the PO and your bank details on the invoice.
Add a pay-now button so the customer can pay by card from the email. Stripe connects to Xero invoices.
What do the main providers charge?
These are each vendor's published UK rates as of October 2026. All three change their pricing from time to time, so check the pricing page before you sign up.
| Provider | What it is | Published UK fee |
|---|---|---|
| SumUp | Card reader and online payments | 1.69% in person; 2.50% online; £19 a month Payments Plus can bring eligible in-person fees to 0.99% |
| Stripe | Online cards, payment links, invoices | 1.5% + 20p standard UK cards; 2.8% + 20p premium UK cards; 2.5% + 20p EEA cards |
| Stripe | Bacs Direct Debit | 1%, minimum 20p, capped at £4 |
| GoCardless | Direct Debit | Standard plan 1% + 20p, capped at £4; extra 0.3% on payments over £2,000; no monthly fee on Standard |
SumUp's figures come from its own comparison page, which says it reflects pricing as of June 2026. Square and other card providers are also worth a look; check their pricing pages directly.
Who each suits. SumUp suits a firm that takes most payments face to face and wants a cheap reader. Stripe suits firms that invoice in Xero and want a pay-now button on every invoice. GoCardless suits firms with service contracts or repeat customers, where the fee cap makes larger payments cheap to collect.
What does it cost on a real job?
Two payments a heating engineer takes every week: a £96 boiler service paid on the day, and a £1,500 deposit for a bathroom refit paid from the invoice.
Fees on a £96 service and a £1,500 deposit
At each vendor's published UK rates, October 2026, before any VAT on fees.
| SumUp card reader, £961.69% × £96 | £1.62 |
| Stripe standard UK card, £961.5% × £96 + 20p | £1.64 |
| Stripe premium UK card, £962.8% × £96 + 20p | £2.89 |
| GoCardless Standard, £961% × £96 + 20p | £1.16 |
| Stripe standard UK card, £1,5001.5% × £1,500 + 20p | £22.70 |
| Stripe premium UK card, £1,5002.8% × £1,500 + 20p | £42.20 |
| SumUp online, £1,5002.50% × £1,500 | £37.50 |
| GoCardless Standard, £1,5001% + 20p = £15.20, capped | £4.00 |
On small amounts the difference is pence. On a large payment the Direct Debit cap makes a real difference: £4 instead of £22.70 to £42.20 on a £1,500 deposit. The catch is that the customer has to set up a mandate, which is natural for a service plan and less so for a one-off deposit.
Should you pass the fee on to the customer?
Since 13 January 2018, UK businesses have been banned from adding a surcharge when a consumer pays by debit or credit card, and the ban extends to methods such as PayPal. What you can do is price the fee into your rates, the same way you'd price in fuel. Xero's online payments page says you can choose to pass some or all of the fee on. That's allowed when a business pays with a commercial card, as long as the surcharge is no more than the payment costs you; with a homeowner, the surcharge ban means building it into your price instead.
A cleaner approach for big domestic jobs: offer bank transfer for the deposit and stage payments, and a card link as the convenient option. For pricing deposits and stages in the first place, see deposits and stage payments.
How do you get payments into Xero without retyping?
Connect the provider to Xero so the payment marks the invoice as paid. Xero lists Stripe for cards and digital wallets and GoCardless for Direct Debit as its built-in UK payment services, with no subscription charge for connecting them; you pay the provider's transaction fee.
- Connect the provider in Xero.
Add Stripe or GoCardless as a payment service in your invoice settings.
- Add it to your invoice branding theme.
Every invoice then carries a pay-now option.
- Set up a fee account.
Code the provider's fees to bank charges so your P&L shows what getting paid costs.
- Check the payouts.
Providers pay out in batches with fees taken off. Reconcile the batch against the invoices it covers, not the gross amounts.
The last step is where books go wrong. A payout of £1,477.30 (£1,500 less a £22.70 standard card fee) doesn't match a £1,500 invoice, and a bookkeeper in a hurry posts the difference to the wrong place. See spotting errors in your P&L for what that looks like.
One gas business we spoke to, an owner and his wife on admin with three engineers and two subbies, already used GoCardless alongside Xero for domestic service customers. Their problem wasn't the payment method; it was chasing quotes at 7 and 30 days and keeping service reminders up to date, which is where most of the admin time went.
Where Nexley fits
Nexley is the AI back office for UK trade firms: five AI assistants run your tenders, quotes, buying, scheduling and invoicing. It connects to the tools you already work in, you run it all from WhatsApp, and you approve everything. £799 a month.
Nexley adds the payment link to every invoice it drafts, matches card and Direct Debit payouts to the right invoices after fees, and chases anything unpaid on the schedule you set. You approve each invoice and each chase on WhatsApp before it goes.
Common questions
Is a card reader worth it for a small trade firm?
If you finish jobs with the customer present, yes. Being paid before you drive away removes the chase completely, and on a £96 job the fee is under £2 at published rates.
Is GoCardless cheaper than card payments?
On its Standard plan, usually yes. The £4 cap kicks in at £380, so larger payments cost no more than £4. On a £1,500 payment that's £4 against £22.70 for a standard UK card on Stripe. The extra 0.3% on payments over £2,000 adds to that.
How long do payments take to arrive?
It depends on the provider and method. GoCardless says a payment is usually confirmed one working day after it's collected from the customer, and the payout then arrives less the fee. Check each provider's payout schedule.
Can I take card payments over the phone?
Yes. A payment link sent by text or email while you're on the phone lets the customer enter their own card details, so you never have to write a card number down.
Sources
- GoCardless: Pricing
- GoCardless support: Pricing and fees
- Stripe: UK pricing
- SumUp: SumUp vs Square comparison (UK)
- Xero UK: Accept online payments
- GOV.UK: Card surcharge ban
- GOV.UK: Payment surcharges guidance update
Every rule, rate and date above was checked against these sources on the date shown at the top.
Topic: Getting paid
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