0.99%

per card payment, any card

€0

terminal and setup

€50

for a month with sales under €1,300

36 months

minimum contract term

What does Flatpay cost?

Flatpay is a Danish payments company that started in Finland in January 2023. It charges 0.99% on every card payment taken on its terminal. According to Flatpay’s price list the fee is the same for every card, while most other providers charge more for business cards and cards issued outside the EEA. The published price applies to businesses with card sales under €200,000 a year. For larger businesses Flatpay sets the price separately.

You do not buy the terminal, because it comes with the service. It is a PAX A920 Pro with a receipt printer, Wi-Fi and 4G. Setup and training are free. Flatpay promises daily payouts and round-the-clock support by phone and email.

The €1,300 minimum: when do you pay €50?

Under Flatpay’s general terms, the customer is invoiced €50 (excluding VAT) per terminal for every month in which total turnover is under €1,300 including VAT. According to the price list the same requirement applies to the POS system, and for seasonal businesses, for example, it can be assessed over the year.

With small sales this charge makes Flatpay expensive. If you take €1,000 a month by card, the fee is €9.90 and the month costs €59.90 in total, about 6% of sales. SumUp would cost €14.90 for the same sales. At €1,300 the cost drops to €12.87. From that level Flatpay is the cheapest option in our comparison up to about €8,100 a month, as long as sales stay above the threshold every month.

A 36-month contract: read the terms before you accept

Flatpay’s contract has no end date, but it includes a 36-month minimum term starting on the day you accept the offer. You cannot terminate it during that time. After that, the contract can be ended with one month’s notice to the end of a month.

• ·If you stop before 36 months have passed, the terms allow Flatpay to charge a one-off €50 (excluding VAT) per terminal for every remaining month. Leave after 12 months and 24 months remain, so the charge could be €1,200 for one terminal.
• ·The terminal is Flatpay’s property. It must be returned within 10 working days after the notice period ends. Otherwise Flatpay invoices the replacement price of the device, which is €480 according to the price list.
• ·Flatpay can change its prices with 30 days’ notice.

Our experience: Flatpay in a café

We used a Flatpay terminal in our café for less than a year. We got the terminal free of charge. When we stopped our retail business, we returned the terminal to Flatpay and were not charged anything.

That was our case. The current terms include a 36-month minimum term, so do not count on the same. If you have to close down before the term ends, ask Flatpay in writing what it will cost before you send the terminal back.

Flatpay, SumUp or Revolut Business: costs at different sales levels

We compared Flatpay with the same formula as our card terminal calculator: a €30 average purchase, all payments with EEA consumer cards, and the reader price left out.

With a €30 average purchase Flatpay stays the cheapest up to about €8,100 a month, as long as sales are at least €1,300 every month. Above that Revolut Business is cheaper, and from about €11,700 SumUp Payments Plus. If you take less than €1,300 a month by card, SumUp is the cheapest.

In euros the gap is not large. At €2,000 a month Flatpay costs €19.80 and SumUp €29.80, a difference of €120 a year. The three-year commitment is the price of that saving.

Who Flatpay suits, and who it does not

Flatpay suits a business whose card sales are steadily above €1,300 a month and which plans to keep going for at least three years, such as an established café, restaurant, hair salon or shop. The single price for every card also helps when many customers pay with business cards or foreign cards.

Consider another option if:

• ·your business is just starting and you are not sure it will run for three years
• ·you take less than €1,300 a month by card, or sales swing a lot from month to month
• ·you want to be able to stop at any time: SumUp and Nexi have no minimum term
• ·your card sales are above €200,000 a year: the price is then agreed separately, so ask several providers for an offer