Contents
In brief
What is it?
Our opinion
In detail
Pricing
Card readers
Service and reviews
Alternatives
What is it?
Tide Card Reader is a relatively new product from Tide, a business account provider in the UK. It enables users to accept contactless and chip and PIN card payments on a standalone, touchscreen card terminal purchased upfront.
To buy one of the card machines, you need to sign up for a Tide Business Account and order it through the Tide App.
Accepted cards
There's a choice between two card machines: the Card Reader and Card Reader Plus terminals. Both work independently without having to connect with an app, and they have no contract or monthly fee, unless you subscribe to lower transaction fees.
Transactions settle in your Tide Business Account within 3 working days on average, or longer for specific cards, but transfers the next working day are possible for a fee. No other accounts can be used for payouts.
| Tide Card Reader criteria | Rating | Conclusion |
|---|---|---|
| Product | 3.6 | Passable/Good |
| Costs and fees | 3.6 | Passable/Good |
| Transparency and sign-up | 3.5 | Passable/Good |
| Value-added services | 3.7 | Passable/Good |
| Service and reviews | 2.8 | Passable |
| Contract | 4 | Good |
| OVERALL SCORE | 3.5 | Passable/Good |
So who would currently benefit from Tide Reader? Merchants who:
- Don't expect to issue refunds too frequently (requires dealing with Tide support)
- Are happy with average-to-slow transfers of funds
- Don't mind high fees for chargebacks, commercial or foreign cards
- Don't need to connect with a POS system
You can only enter a simple amount on the card reader – it's not for detailed, itemised transactions connected to an EPOS.
The transaction minimum used to be £5, but thankfully this has reduced to £1 on par with most other card readers on the market.
Overall, this could be a worthwhile deal if you almost only accept domestic consumer cards from Visa and Mastercard.
The prices of the standalone terminals are lower than what you typically get on the market, and the domestic transaction rates are also lower than those of big competitors like SumUp and Square, though the added 5p makes small transaction values pricey. Revolut Reader transactions cost less in general.
Our experience of communications with Tide has been less than ideal, as we got slow responses to queries. But if you're on one of the paid Tide Business Account subscriptions, the support should be a lot more responsive.
Pricing: cheap to purchase, with mixed fees to follow
The purchase price of a Tide Card Reader is the most attractive bit of the pricing: only £59 + VAT for the card reader without a printer, or £79 + VAT for the reader with a printer.
On the Pay As You Go card reader plan, there's no contractual lock-in or monthly fee, but you do need a Tide account for £0-£69.99 + VAT monthly depending on the amount of banking features.
| Tide Card Reader – Pay As You Go costs |
|
|---|---|
| Tide Card Reader price | £59 + VAT |
| Tide Card Reader Plus price | £79 + VAT |
| Business account | From £0/mo (depends on plan) |
| Contract lock-in | None |
| Card transaction fees | Domestic consumer Visa/Mastercard: 1.39% +5p Domestic commercial Visa/Mastercard: 2.7% + 5p International Visa/Mastercard: 2.9% + 5p American Express: 3% + 5p Diners Club/Discover: 3.8% + 5p |
For a monthly fee, you can get lower domestic transaction fees, but other transaction charges remain the same.
Tide Card Reader Sell In-Person plans:
| Sell In-Person – buy device |
Sell In-Person – rent device |
|
|---|---|---|
| Monthly fee | £12.99 + VAT/mo Device purchase from £59 required |
£24.99 + VAT/mo for first device £14.99 + VAT/mo per extra device |
| Contract lock-in | None | 12 months |
| Card transaction fees | Domestic consumer debit Visa/Mastercard: 0.79% + 3p Domestic consumer credit Visa/Mastercard: 0.89% + 3p All other transaction fees are the same as on Pay As You Go (above table) |
|
The only advantage of the monthly plans are the lower domestic consumer Visa or Mastercard fees. If you accept commercial or foreign cards or any sort, the fees are still high for those – even for UK-issued commercial Visa and Mastercard.
As for the rental plan, is it worth paying £24.99 + VAT monthly on a 12-month contract for one card terminal that only costs £59–£79 to purchase (through our link, at least)? If you have to pay full price for a terminal (from £159 + VAT), then yes, maybe. Otherwise, maybe avoid a contract when the card machine isn't even built to integrate with POS systems or your sales aren't that high.
Other fees apply to all plans, whether it's Pay As You Go or the Sell In-Person subscriptions.
Miscellaneous fees for all Tide Card Reader users:
| Tide Card Reader – general costs |
|
|---|---|
| Refunds | Original transaction fees are retained |
| Chargebacks | £25 each |
| Payouts | 3+ working days: Free 1 working day: £2.99 + VAT/mo |
If a customer requires a refund, the merchant has to contact Tide's customer support chat to arrange that, which is unusual for a card reader company. While there is no refund fee added, Tide keeps the transaction fees originally paid when processing the refund.
We also found that Tide charges £25 per chargeback (where a cardholder disputes a transaction), which is significantly more than Revolut (£15), SumUp (£10) and Square (free).
Standard settlement of 3+ working days is free, but for an optional £2.99 + VAT monthly cost, you can receive funds in 1 working day. To compare, many card machine companies now offer next-working day payouts as standard.
Regarding the card readers, Tide finally offer a 1-year warranty like most other competitors. This is a big step up from its original 4-month warranty for manufacturing defects, which we flagged as insufficient 2 years ago. So Tide has listened!
There is also a limit on how many card readers can be purchased: a maximum of 10 per company registered with Tide.
| Card machine | Tide Card Reader  |
Tide Card Reader Plus  |
|---|---|---|
| Model | AMS1 terminal model by Adyen | S1F2 terminal model by Adyen |
| Price | £59 + VAT | £79 + VAT |
| Standalone | Yes | Yes |
| Receipts | Email only | Printed + email |
| Connections | WiFi, 4G (SIM included) | WiFi, 4G (SIM included) |
| Size | 12.2 x 6.7 x 1.8 cm | 20 x 7.8 x 5.6 cm |
| Display | 4″ touchscreen | 5.5″ touchscreen |
| Weight | 170 g | 495 g |
Both of these Android-based payment terminals have a 1-day battery life and accept chip and PIN and contactless payments. The cheaper model, Tide Card Reader, does not print receipts – only the pricier Plus model does.
The terminals include a free SIM card with "lifetime data", so you never have to worry about relying on just WiFi.
Tide Card Reader next to Tide Card Reader Plus.
We should point out that these card machines are for simple, non-itemised transactions only. They don't integrate with POS systems or till equipment, so they are more geared towards individual sellers using Tide Business Account actively, not sellers who want the most comprehensive checkout.
Support and reviews
The amount of customer support available depends on your chosen business account plan, so users don't get an equal amount of help.
On the Free plan, you get basic in-app messaging support, which users have said takes 20-30 minutes to get any human response. There is also an email address for general queries with even slower response times, and no phone line for the Free plan.
On the Smart subscription (£12.49 + VAT monthly), you can access a telephone helpline, priority in-app support and a 24/7 legal helpline.
Tide reviews from real users are a mixed bag. Generally, Tide gets high Trustpilot ratings for its business account, but most of the 5-star reviews look very similar and generic so may not be genuine. On most days, Tide receives 1-star reviews from users that look genuine. These are usually about a bad experience of customer support, inaccessible accounts and withheld funds.
Is Tide Card Reader better than alternatives?
The closest competitors to Tide Card Reader are currently Revolut Reader and SumUp's card terminals. Like Tide, they come with a business current account and range of features for payment acceptance and business banking.
Which is then best? Like Tide, Revolut and SumUp offer payment links, invoicing and ecommerce features. Only SumUp has a substantial EPOS, though Revolut'sPOS app suits small cafés. Tide Card Reader doesn't connect with any till register – it's only for mobile, simple transactions.
Revolut's banking features are more extensive than SumUp's, whereas Tide is somewhere in between.
But if cross-border payments are important, Revolut leads with its multi-currency features. Tide only allows euro transfers to SEPA countries, but can receive money from abroad, converted into GBP.
Revolut also offers a standalone card machine apart from its card reader that connects with a phone app. SumUp's card machines are generally better and more versatile, as we've verified through years of usage.
What about transaction fees? Since Tide changed its card reader fee from 1.5% to upwards of 1.39% +5p, it has become a less attractive option.
Revolut Business (for companies) offers a low fee for domestic cards (0.8% + 2p) and higher for other cards (2.6% + 2p). Their Pro account for freelancers charges 1.5% without a fixed fee for any card reader transaction, including foreign and commercial cards.
In either of these cases, Tide will be more expensive for its higher fixed fee (5p vs Revolut's 2p or 0p), and Revolut Business' very low domestic rate also applies to commercial Visa/Mastercard, unlike Tide that has a high fee for those.
SumUp's simple percentage rate (1.69%) without a fixed fee added is also cheaper than Tide for small transaction sizes (below £17).
