The Problem With Card Machines
Card machines were revolutionary when they first appeared. For the first time, businesses that operated outside of a shop — tradespeople, mobile services, market stall holders — could accept card payments in the field. But that was fifteen years ago. The world has moved on, and card machines have not kept up.
The problems start with cost. A single card machine rental from a traditional merchant services provider costs £15-30 per month. If you run a team of 8 field engineers, that is £120-240 per month in hardware rental alone, on top of the per-transaction fees you pay on every payment. Over a year, that is £1,440-£2,880 just to rent the devices — before you have processed a single pound.
Then there is the operational reality. Card machines need charging. They need a mobile data connection or Wi-Fi. They need thermal paper rolls. They need software updates. They get left in vans, dropped on floors, and rained on. If your business operates in basements, rural areas, or large commercial buildings, connectivity is patchy at best. Your engineer finishes a four-hour job, pulls out the card machine, and it either will not connect or the battery is dead. The customer promises to pay later. Sometimes they do. Often they take weeks.
For businesses with multiple team members, the logistics are a headache. You need a device for every person who might need to take a payment. When someone leaves the company, you need the machine back. When a new person starts, you need to order and set up another device. If a machine breaks, there is a 5-10 day wait for a replacement. All of this creates admin and cost that has nothing to do with actually serving your customers.
The good news is that in 2026, card machines are optional. There are multiple ways to accept card payments from customers without owning, renting, or maintaining a single piece of hardware. This guide covers all of them.
Your Options for Taking Payments Without a Card Machine
Payment Links
Payment links are the most direct replacement for card machines, and for most service businesses, they are the best alternative. Here is how they work: you create a payment request for a specific amount — say, £280 for a plumbing repair — and the system generates a unique link (URL). You send that link to your customer by text message, WhatsApp, or email. The customer taps the link on their phone, sees a checkout page showing the amount and description, enters their card details, and pays. Done.
The advantages over a card machine are significant. There is no hardware to buy, rent, charge, or maintain. The payment link works anywhere your customer has a phone and an internet connection — which is everywhere. You do not need to be standing next to the customer; you can send a link from the office, from another job site, or from home. Your entire team can send payment links from their own phones without any special equipment.
Transaction fees are comparable to card machines — typically 1.4-2.5% depending on the provider and the card type used. But without the monthly hardware rental, the total cost is almost always lower. For a business processing £15,000 per month across a team of 6, switching from card machines to payment links can save £200+ per month in hardware costs alone.
The one thing payment links do not replicate is the instant, in-person experience of tapping a card on a terminal. There is a 20-30 second gap while the customer opens the link and enters their details. In practice, most customers do this immediately — especially if you send the link while you are still with them. But it is a slightly different rhythm to the tap-and-go of a card machine, and some businesses need a short adjustment period.
Phone Payments and Voice Checkout
If your business has an office or call centre that handles bookings and payments by phone, Voice Checkout is a natural card-machine-free option. Instead of asking the customer to read their card number aloud (which is a PCI compliance risk — more on that below), the customer enters their card details using their phone keypad while on the call. Your staff never hear or see the card information, which means the payment is fully PCI compliant without any additional security measures.
Voice Checkout is particularly valuable for businesses where the customer journey includes a phone call anyway — booking confirmations, appointment reminders, follow-up calls after quotes. Rather than ending the call and sending a separate payment link, the advisor can say "I can take payment now if you would like — I will just transfer you to our secure line for a moment." The customer enters their card details, the payment is confirmed, and the call continues.
The limitation is that Voice Checkout requires a phone call. It is not a replacement for in-person payment collection in the field. It is best suited to office-based payment collection — deposits, advance payments, balance payments collected after the work is done — rather than the "pay-on-completion" moment that card machines typically handle.
Tap to Pay on Phone (Mobile POS)
Apple and several Android manufacturers now support "tap to pay" directly on the phone, turning the phone itself into a contactless card terminal. Services like Square, SumUp, and Stripe offer apps that enable this. The customer taps their card or phone on your phone, and the payment goes through — no card machine, no dongle.
This is the closest like-for-like replacement for a card machine, and for businesses doing a lot of small, in-person transactions (coffee shops, market stalls, mobile food vendors), it can work well. However, there are limitations. It only works on newer phones — iPhone XS or later for Apple, and selected Android devices with NFC. It requires the customer to be physically present. Transaction limits are the same as contactless limits (currently £100 in the UK, though this is periodically raised). And the technology is still relatively new, so not all customers are comfortable with it.
For service businesses with teams — the kind of business this guide focuses on — Tap to Pay has the same scaling problem as card machines. Every team member who needs to take payments needs a compatible phone with the app installed and configured. It is less expensive than a card machine rental, but it still ties payment collection to specific hardware.
PayPal.Me and Cash App Links
PayPal.Me gives you a personal link (paypal.me/yourbusiness) that you can share with customers. When they click it, they can send you a payment via PayPal. It is free to set up and the PayPal brand is widely trusted. Cash App offers similar functionality in markets where it is popular.
The downsides are significant for professional service businesses. PayPal.Me links are generic — the customer can change the payment amount, which creates reconciliation problems. There is limited branding and no way to include a description of what the payment is for. PayPal's transaction fees (2.9% + 30p for commercial payments) are higher than most dedicated payment link providers. And PayPal holds are notorious: if PayPal flags your account for any reason, your funds can be frozen for weeks. For a business relying on regular cash flow, this is a serious risk.
PayPal.Me works as a quick-and-dirty backup, but it is not a professional payment collection system for a business with a team.
Bank Transfer
The simplest card-machine alternative is to ask customers to pay by bank transfer. You provide your sort code and account number, the customer transfers the amount, and the money arrives in your account (usually the same day with Faster Payments). There are no transaction fees on either side.
The problem with bank transfer is friction. The customer has to log into their banking app, add you as a new payee (which can take minutes or even 24 hours for the first payment), enter the amount, and add a reference. Every step is an opportunity for delay or error. Bank transfers also lack the instant confirmation that card payments provide — you may need to wait minutes or hours before you can see the payment in your account, making it difficult to confirm payment on the spot.
For regular customers who pay you monthly, bank transfer (or a standing order) can work well once the initial setup is done. But for one-off or infrequent payments, the setup friction is a real barrier to getting paid quickly.
Direct Debit (GoCardless, etc.)
Direct Debit is a powerful tool for businesses with recurring revenue — monthly maintenance contracts, subscription services, regular cleaning or gardening. GoCardless is the most popular Direct Debit provider for UK SMEs, charging 1% + 20p per transaction (capped at £4). Once a customer sets up a Direct Debit mandate, you can collect payments automatically on a schedule without any action from the customer.
However, Direct Debit is not a replacement for card machines in most scenarios. It takes 3-5 days for a Direct Debit to clear. It requires the customer to set up a mandate in advance. And it is designed for recurring, predictable amounts — not the variable, job-by-job payments that most service businesses need to collect. If you have a recurring revenue component to your business, Direct Debit is worth adding as a payment method alongside payment links, but it will not replace your card machine for day-to-day payment collection.
How Payment Links Replace Card Machines
For businesses with teams — the plumbing company with 8 engineers, the cleaning company with 12 operatives, the electrical contractor with a team of 6 — payment links solve the card machine problem at its root.
Instead of issuing every team member a card machine, you give them access to your payment link platform. When a job is complete, the team member opens the app on their phone (no special equipment needed), creates a payment link for the agreed amount, and sends it to the customer by text. The customer pays on their phone. The office sees the payment confirmed in real time on the central dashboard.
There is no hardware to distribute, charge, maintain, or retrieve. When a new team member starts, you add them to the platform. When someone leaves, you remove their access. If someone's phone breaks, they can send a payment link from any other device — a tablet, a borrowed phone, even a laptop.
The reliability improvement is dramatic. Card machines fail because they depend on a chain of hardware components all working simultaneously: battery, SIM card, mobile data connection, card reader, printer, and thermal paper. Payment links depend on one thing: the ability to send a text message. If your team member can send a text, they can collect a payment. If the customer has a phone, they can pay.
For businesses that currently lose 5-10% of payments because the card machine was not available, was not charged, or could not connect, payment links can recover thousands of pounds per month in revenue that was previously delayed or lost entirely.
The economics make sense at any team size, but the savings accelerate as teams grow. A solo trader saves £15-30 per month by dropping one card machine. A business with 15 team members saves £225-450 per month in hardware rental, plus the admin time spent managing devices, ordering replacements, and chasing lost terminals. Over a year, that is £2,700-£5,400 in savings — enough to fund a new van or a significant marketing campaign.
Taking Payments Over the Phone — Without a Card Machine
Many businesses that use card machines also take payments over the phone — for deposits, advance payments, or balance payments from customers who were not present when the work was done. Without a card machine, you might think this option disappears. It does not.
There are two card-machine-free approaches to phone payments. The first is to send a payment link during the call. While you are on the phone with the customer, you create a link and text it to them. They tap the link and pay while you are still on the line. This takes about 30 seconds and avoids any PCI compliance issues because you never handle card details.
The second is Voice Checkout, which is designed specifically for phone payments. The customer enters their card details using their phone keypad during the call, so your staff never hear or see the card information. This is faster than sending a link (about 15 seconds for the payment step) and feels more natural because the customer does not need to switch between their phone app and the call.
Both methods are more secure than the traditional approach of asking customers to read their card number aloud. Under PCI DSS (the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard), any business that handles card details — even verbally over the phone — has compliance obligations. If your staff write down card numbers, store them in a CRM, or repeat them back to the customer, you are at risk of a data breach and the fines that follow. Payment links and Voice Checkout eliminate this risk entirely.
What to Look For When Replacing Your Card Machine
If you are ready to ditch the card machine (or you never had one and want to start accepting card payments), here is what to evaluate in a payment provider.
No hardware dependency. This might sound obvious given the topic of this guide, but check carefully. Some providers advertise "no card machine needed" but then require a specific phone model, a Bluetooth dongle, or a proprietary app that only works on iOS. The best payment link providers work on any device with a web browser — your team member's Android phone, an office laptop, a tablet. No downloads, no dongles, no compatibility issues.
Multi-user access. If you have a team, you need multiple people to be able to create and send payment links. Some providers are designed for sole traders and only support a single login. Others offer team plans with multiple user accounts, each with their own permissions. Your engineers should be able to send links but perhaps not issue refunds. Your office manager should see all payments across the business. Your accountant might need read-only access for reconciliation. Look for role-based access that fits your team structure.
SMS and WhatsApp delivery. Email payment links have lower open rates and response rates than SMS. If your customers are consumers (homeowners, individuals), text message delivery is critical — people check texts immediately but may not see an email for hours. WhatsApp delivery is increasingly important too, especially for younger customers. Check whether your provider supports SMS delivery natively or whether you need to copy and paste links manually.
Transparent pricing. Card machine providers are notorious for opaque pricing: monthly fees, transaction fees, minimum monthly charges, PCI compliance fees, paper roll charges, and early termination fees. The best payment link providers offer straightforward pricing: a transaction fee (percentage + fixed amount per transaction) and possibly a monthly subscription for team features. No hidden costs, no long-term contracts, no termination penalties.
Fast settlement. When you take a payment via card machine, the funds typically arrive in your bank account within 1-3 business days. Payment link providers vary: some settle next business day, some take 3-5 days, and some hold funds for longer if your account is new. For a service business that depends on cash flow, next-day settlement should be a baseline requirement. Ask about settlement terms before you sign up, not after.
Branding. When your customer receives a payment link, they see a checkout page. On a generic provider, that page shows the provider's branding — which can confuse customers or reduce trust. The best providers let you customise the checkout page with your logo, colours, and business name, so the payment experience feels like part of your service rather than a redirect to a random third-party site.
Reliability and uptime. Your payment method needs to work every time, without exception. Check the provider's status page for uptime history. Read reviews from other service businesses. A payment provider that goes down for two hours on a Friday afternoon could cost you thousands in delayed payments. Payment links have an inherent reliability advantage over card machines — there is no hardware to fail — but the platform behind them still needs to be robust.
For most service businesses with teams, payment links are the clear winner when replacing card machines. They are cheaper, more reliable, easier to scale, and provide better data. Combined with Voice Checkout for phone-based payments, they cover every scenario that a card machine handles — and several that it does not — without any of the hardware headaches.