SumUp 3G and Printer review: lowest-cost terminal with receipt printer in UK

Buy SumUp 3G + Printer for just £129 + VAT. No ongoing fees or contract. Free delivery in 5-7 working days.

How the SumUp card machine works

The SumUp 3G with Printer is formed of a receipt printer cradle that works in conjunction with a SumUp 3G card reader.

Don’t need a receipt printer?

Check out the latest card terminal: SumUp Solo

Costs and payouts

The SumUp 3G + Printer costs £129 + VAT through our link.

Note: If you already have a SumUp 3G card reader, you can buy the printer separately for £109 + VAT.

There is no delivery or setup fee with SumUp, so these are the only upfront costs.

There are no monthly fees, nor contract lock-in with SumUp. When you accept cards with SumUp 3G + Printer, you only pay a fixed rate of 1.69% per transaction regardless of card type, country of issue and brand.

SumUp automatically transfers payments to your bank account within 1-3 working days for free. Refunds are free to process if processed straight after the original transaction, but SumUp keeps the transaction fee if the refund is done after the transaction has been paid into your bank account. Chargebacks cost an £10 admin fee each.

Tech specs

The card reader and printing cradle come as separate entities.

For the printer to work, the card reader should be ‘locked’ in and sit inside the white, rubber-feel, plastic cradle before any transaction if you want to print a receipt for it. If it is even a little loose, the printer won’t work properly, so it’s best not to keep taking it in and out in case you have to fiddle to reestablish the connection.

The SumUp 3G + Printer accepts chip cards in the bottom slot and contactless taps over the display. Magnetic stripe cards cannot be swiped.

The cradle has two black rubber strips underneath to keep it firmly in one spot of a table. Although the device looks like a stationary terminal, the SumUp 3G Printer is wireless and made to used as a handheld terminal (but it is admittedly chunky, so it may feel natural to use it with two hands).

The display is touchscreen, prompting you to tap the letter, symbols or numbers of your SumUp user login, or contact details for e-receipts. Otherwise, you can use the push-buttons for most menu options. The buttons are backlit with blue light so you don’t struggle to see the keys in the dark. There are also green blinking lights above the display to indicate whether it is on standby or fully charged when plugged in.

The card reader is made of matt plastic, is very light, pocket-sized and can be used separately as a terminal without printing capability.

It has a built-in SIM card with unlimited, free data to connect with the local 3G, GPRS or EDGE network for card processing. It also works with WiFi.

The SumUp 3G Printer package comes with a three-pinned UK wall plug and USB-C cable that can be used together for charging the 3G Terminal and Printer.

The printing cradle is also a charging cradle, so the card reader will be charged when placed inside the cradle.

Photo: ES, Mobile Transaction

The SumUp 3G reader is small and lightweight on its own.

Receipts

The printed receipts are quite detailed, perhaps too small a font size. The same receipt information is displayed on paper, SMS and email receipts and includes:

• Your business name and address
• Transaction and terminal ID
• Receipt number
• Card details (card brand, last four card number digits, method)
• Time of sale
• Transaction amount
• Statement in tiny writing: “I agree to pay the above total amount according to the card issuer agreement”
• Authorisation details
• Statement in bigger writing: “Please retain for your records”
• Bottom: SumUp logo and small text about SumUp

Since it does not show itemised products, but rather a total amount, it is a small receipt size. You cannot customise the details on the receipt except for business information like address and company name. Changing those details requires contacting SumUp with the request, since it has to be verified in the system.

If you forgot to the attach the printer part to the card reader before getting to the printing stage, you can just finalise the transaction and attach the printer. Then go to the main menu and pick ‘Sales history’, the transaction, and whether to send or print the receipt.

When separated from the printer, the card reader will only offer to send a receipt digitally via text or email following the transaction.

We tried to print a receipt for refunds, but found it only prints the receipt for the original transaction, so you can’t provide a paper proof for refunds.

Receipt rolls are easily changed at the back of the printer – just pull out the receipt roll compartment, take out the old roll and insert the new roll with a bit of paper sticking out. Shut the compartment, rip off excess paper – and off you print. No ink is required, since it uses thermal paper (via heat-based technology).

You can’t currently purchase receipt rolls in the SumUp Shop, so you have to order them elsewhere online.

Reporting

The SumUp 3G Printer can print old transaction receipts, but not daily or general sales reports. In that sense, the printer is only useful for customer receipts and additional copies of these receipts.

The same sales reports for all SumUp users through the dashboard account, which you can log in to from any internet browser. In the SumUp account, you can get a sales overview, filter sales, export sales reports to a CSV file and view payout details.

You can filter sales and transactions by:

• Time period – today, last week, last month, last 6 months, or specific date interval
• Payment type – card or cash (the latter only relevant if you use the SumUp app accepting cash)
• Payment status – successful, failed, refund, or chargeback
• Employees (if you’ve added employee user accounts in the backend)

SumUp does not currently have the ability to integrate sales with external accounting systems, but if you export transactions to a CSV file, you can import that file in your chosen accounting software.

Customer service and user reviews

SumUp’s customer support can be phoned on weekdays between 8am and 7pm and weekends between 8am and 5pm. Alternatively, you can email support or submit a message via your SumUp account online any time, although there won’t be a response before the following business hours.

Generally, the company is rated highly in user reviews for its low costs, fuss-free sign-up and ease of use. There are not enough comments on the 3G Printer to know what people’s long-term experience with the device is. The support team is generally helpful, but can be a bit slow when it comes to non-urgent issues (urgent issues get a faster response, in our experience).

Who is SumUp 3G and Printer best for?

SumUp is geared towards small businesses, sole traders and merchants who need a low-cost solution for card payments processed over a mobile network or WiFi.

Coupled with the portability, SumUp 3G with Printer is ideal for locations like the countryside or trains where 4G is poor and 3G or slower mobile connections are the norm. This could be at a market stall, small shop, home visits, business conferences or any other places of business.

In a restaurant, you may want to use the SumUp card machine for tableside payments requiring a printed receipt.

As with other payment companies, certain high-risk business types are not allowed such as pawn shops, investment clubs, multi-level marketers and car dealers. If you plan on doing business abroad (within Europe), you can let SumUp know and they might let you use the terminal in that country for a planned duration.

How to get started

It’s very easy to sign up with SumUp. You just fill in the brief sign-up form on the website, submitting basic personal details and your business information, then order the terminal. Your bank account and business details will then take a few days to verified officially, after which your bank account is ready to receive transactions.

It takes about a week for the package to arrive. We received it in a medium/large brown box with a very sturdy, blue SumUp box inside containing the product contents. There’s already some battery power on the SumUp 3G + Printer, so you can switch it on immediately, log in with your username and password and take payments straight away.

Our verdict

If you want the absolute cheapest card machine with receipt printer, SumUp 3G + Printer takes the prize. No other commitment-free, receipt-printing card machines in the UK are this cheap, with a reasonable card rate, pay-as-you-go and without monthly fees. SumUp ticks all those boxes, and you can use it wirelessly anywhere with a 3G connection or WiFi.

Admittedly, the two-piece terminal is not the sleekest, nor lightest, but it fits perfectly on a countertop while also being portable. If you don’t need paper receipts, you can just take the card reader out from the printing cradle and use it on its own – or get the cheaper SumUp Solo which is smaller.

Bottom line: SumUp 3G + Printer duo is a low-cost, effective solution for mobile card payments with paper receipts.