- Pros: Good variety of terminals. Products available through many merchant service providers.
- Cons: Technical support reportedly poor. Website not helpful to individual merchants.
Note: In 2020, Spire Payments was acquired by Castles Technology, whose brand has replaced Spire.
In a nutshell
Spire Payments is a company designing and producing their own-branded card terminals. They partner with merchant service providers who can offer the card machines through custom solutions. Moreover, Spire works with payment companies to develop software for their terminals, for example by providing an application programming interface.
Spire has a support infrastructure in place to facilitate the launch of their terminals to any market internationally, including a variety of sectors in countries like India, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, US and UK. They are able to manage stock, fulfilment of orders, repairs, support and deployment of applications that merchants can use.
Currently, there’s a dozen card terminals listed on their website, some of which may seem familiar from resellers. For instance, the PosMate Smart Bluetooth PIN Pad was used by Elavon MobileMerchant, whose main focus is not to design unique card readers, but to provide a managed solution with card processing included.
Spire card machines
The Spire terminal range can be grouped into mPOS (mobile point of sale), traditional POS and smart POS terminals.
The mPOS terminals all work with an application on a Bluetooth-connected mobile device, i.e. they are not built to be standalone terminals. The older Spire mPOS model PosMate is no longer recommended, since it does not accept contactless payments (from year 2020, all terminals should be able to accept contactless cards, according to Visa and Mastercard requirements). The following models are recommended at the moment:
| SPm3 | SPm2 | SPm20 | |
|---|---|---|---|
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 |
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|
| App compatibility | Android, iOS, Windows | Android, iOS, Windows | Android, iOS, Windows |
| Accepted card types | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe |
| Differentiator | Smallest card reader | Compatible with the PosMate (older-model card reader) API | Can be secured on a counter dock, longest battery life |
| SPm3 | SPm2 | SPm20 |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
| App compatibility | ||
| Android, iOS, Windows | Android, iOS, Windows | Android, iOS, Windows |
| Accepted card types | ||
| EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe |
| Differentiator | ||
| Smallest card reader | Compatible with the PosMate (older-model card reader) API | Can be secured on a counter dock, longest battery life |
The traditional terminal range (or “POS end points”, as Spire calls it) consists of four conventional-looking card machines and a solution for unattended payments such as ticketing, vending machines, kiosks and parking machines. Here are three of the card machines:
| SPc5 | SPg7 | SPp40 | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
|
| Type | Countertop, stationary | Wireless, portable | Countertop, stationary |
| Accepted card types | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe |
| Differentiator | Must have power cable attached | 400-500 transactions per battery charge | Designed for PIN entry privacy |
| SPc5 | SPg7 | SPp40 |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
| Type | ||
| Countertop, stationary | Wireless, portable | Countertop, stationary |
| Accepted card types | ||
| EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe |
| Differentiator | ||
| Must have power cable attached | 400-500 transactions per battery charge | Designed for PIN entry privacy |
Most recently, Spire created a ‘Genesis’ range of SmartPOS terminals, designed to follow the market trend towards all-in-one devices with features accessible through a touchscreen display. The smart devices can be connected with Bluetooth cash drawers and receipt printers for a custom point of sale solution. The Genesis range includes:
| SPx1 | SPx2 | SPx3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
 |
|
| Type | Entry-level smart device | Replaces traditional card machines | EPOS display and terminal in one device |
| Accepted card types | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe |
| Differentiator | Palm-sized, camera for barcode and QR code scanning | With in-built receipt printing | With 11.6″ touchscreen display, with rotating stand |
| SPx1 | SPx2 | SPx3 |
|---|---|---|
|
|
|
| Type | ||
| Entry-level smart device | Replaces traditional card machines | EPOS display and terminal in one device |
| Accepted card types | ||
| EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe | EMV, NFC, swipe |
| Differentiator | ||
| Palm-sized, camera for barcode and QR code scanning | With in-built receipt printing | With 11.6″ touchscreen display, with rotating stand |
Where to buy or rent Spire terminals
Spire card machines can be rented and bought from many companies across the world. There is no exhaustive list of all providers, but we have found that these payment providers offer Spire as part of their terminal portfolio:
- Blackstar Merchant Services (SMEs)
- Card Cutters (any size business)
- CutPay (any size business)
- Elavon (any size business)
- Forest Communications (any size business)
- Glorydale Merchant Services (any size business)
- Handepay (SMEs)
- LibertyPay (any size business)
- Monek (SMEs)
- NetPay (any size business)
- PayaCardServices (SMEs)
- Paymentsense (SMEs)
- XLN (small businesses)
- Yorkshire Payments (any size business)
Pricing
Spire does not offer the card machines for fixed prices. Since they typically only work directly with bigger merchants, the prices will be based on volume and specifications.
As for renting, you can look at the above payment providers’ websites for a better view of price ranges. It is common to have different price levels between the mobile, portable and stationary terminals, given the functional differences.
Customer service
It is limited what information you can get about the quality of Spire’s customer service, but several users have reported unresponsive phone support when their terminal had issues. A phone number is provided for technical support, which is what merchant service providers may refer you to for technical support.
Spire’s website does have useful product manuals and information for partners and developers – but it is not intuitive to navigate! A lot of the information is not written very well (dense and poorly formulated), so you are better off phoning Spire’s helpline with anything you’re not clear about.
If you run a charity, for example, you can tell them where you need unattended PIN pads to be placed, and they can co-create a solution that covers the hardware setup, software and payment features. Since they deal with a wide range of stakeholders, e.g. independent sales organisations (ISOs), organisations, retailers and charities, they should adapt to your needs with a personalised approach.
It is more important to go for the kind of service you need, with a contract suitable for your budget and needs.
Going for a service from Spire Payments directly is more for companies and organisations with the money to create a customised solution.
Individual merchants who just want to accept cards will get their needs met though whichever merchant service provider they prefer.
Whether you choose a Spire card terminal through that provider should be a secondary choice, unless you have very specific needs around the ergonomics, design or hardcoded functions of the terminal.
Spire SPs30 terminal.
Verdict
Spire Payments is a trusted company for a variety of organisations, large-scale retailers, merchant service providers and others considering their own POS and terminal solution.
The company has a strong footing not unlike Verifone and Ingenico, but the UK-based support makes them a good choice for British companies preferring a supplier with a decent understanding of the local market.
