The Card Machine forBusiness That Takes Pay by Bank
What is a card machine?
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A card machine, also called a card terminal, card payment machine, PDQ machine or POS terminal, is the device a business uses to take payments in person. The customer taps a contactless card or phone, inserts a card and enters a PIN, or pays with a mobile wallet such as Apple Pay or Google Pay, and the machine authorises the payment and sends the money to your account through your payment provider.
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A card machine for business needs to do a little more than that. It has to keep up at a busy counter, work at the table or on the shop floor as well as beside the till, report every payment into one place across several sites, and cost you a sensible amount per transaction once the monthly fees are added up. The Atoa card machine does all of that, and it also takes Pay by Bank, so a customer can approve a payment straight from their own Bank app on the very same device.
Take a payment in three steps
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Step 1
Ring up the sale.
Enter the amount on the terminal screen.
Step 2
The customer pays their way.
They tap or insert a card, use Apple Pay or Google Pay, or scan to pay from their Bank app, whichever suits them. They choose; you just confirm.
Step 3
Payment confirmed, sale recorded.
The payment shows on the terminal and in your Atoa dashboard across every till and site.
The PAX A920 Pro: Card Terminal and Pay by Bank in one
PAX A920 Pro with Atoa
Contactless, chip and PIN, digital wallets and Pay by Bank on one portable terminal.
| Feature | PAX A920 Pro with Atoa | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Card payments | Visa, Mastercard and American Express, contactless and chip and PIN | ||
| Wallets | Apple Pay, Google Pay and any NFC phone | ||
| Pay by Bank | Yes, the customer approves in their own Bank app on the same device | ||
| Screen and printer | Touchscreen with a built-in receipt printer | ||
| Connectivity | WiFi and mobile, 4G data | ||
| Charging | USB-C, 5,150 mAh battery | ||
| Portable | Yes, for the counter, table service or shop floor | ||
| Multi-site | One account, unlimited tills and locations, one dashboard | ||
| Contract | No long-term tie-in; cancel any time | ||
| Hardware cost | £338.30 to buy or £20 a month to rent | ||
| Card fee | From 1.3%* | ||
| Pay by Bank fee | From 0.7% + VAT | ||
| Compliance | PCI DSS; Atoa FCA authorised (FRN 1007647); card services by Rapyd (FRN 900688) |
Every way your customers want to pay
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Cards and wallets
Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Apple Pay and Google Pay, by contactless or chip and PIN.
Pay by Bank
The customer approves in their Bank app, straight from the same terminal. No extra hardware needed.
No terminal? QR code
Customers scan a QR code on any screen and pay by bank or card, with nothing to download. Useful as a second payment point at peak, or where a card terminal is not practical.
Which Card Machine Is Best for a Business With Several Sites?
A single-site business can get by with almost any terminal. The moment you run two or more locations, the questions change: can head office see every till in one place, can you add a terminal to a new site without a new contract, and are you paying a separate monthly fee per machine. With Atoa, every terminal sits under one account and one dashboard, so a five-site group sees the same reporting a single café does, and adding a location is a matter of switching on another terminal rather than signing another agreement. Staff can be given cashier or supervisor roles per site, refunds and tips are handled in the Atoa Business app, and where you run an integrated EPOS such as Epos Now, pointOne, Tevalis or Till Tech, the payment closes the sale in the till as a tender type. If you are still choosing a till, our restaurant POS comparison covers the main UK systems.
A card machine that costs you less
Lower fees
Cards from 1.3%* and Pay by Bank from 0.7% + VAT, up to 50% lower than typical card fees on the same sale.
FCA authorised
Atoa Payments Limited is FCA authorised (FRN 1007647), Card services are provided by Rapyd (FRN 900688).
No chargebacks on Pay by Bank
The customer approves in their own Bank app under Strong Customer Authentication, so there is no card network to reverse the payment. Refunds are yours to issue from the dashboard.
No lock-in
No long tie-in. Cancel any time, whether you buy or rent the terminal.
Fast settlement
Pay by Bank settles in seconds over Faster Payments; larger businesses can choose end-of-day payouts. Card payments typically settle within two working days, excluding weekends and public holidays.
A trusted partner
for businesses in the UK
See how much you can save with Pay by Bank
- Up to 50% lower payment fees
- Faster access to funds
- One platform for modern payments
ISO-27001 and SOC2 Secure
Security backed by UK banks
Authorised by the FCA
Schedule a quick chat with our team!
Select your preferred time, and our team will give you a short demonstration of how Atoa can work for your business. Book a call
Book a callHow Much Is a Card Machine? Clear Pricing, No Lock-In
How much a card machine costs depends on three things: the hardware, any monthly fee, and the rate you pay on each transaction. The third is almost always the largest over a year, which is why a low headline rental can still be the expensive option. With Atoa the terminal is £338.30 to buy outright or £20 a month to rent, there is no long-term contract either way, and there is no separate monthly fee for the account on the Basic plan.
| Atoa | |
|---|---|
| Terminal to buy | £338.30 one-off |
| Terminal to rent | £20 a month, cancel any time |
| Card transactions | From 1.3%* (UK debit and credit) |
| Pay by Bank transactions | From 0.7% + VAT |
| Monthly account fee | None on Basic; Growth £79 and Advanced £149 per location per month add features such as Google Reviews prompts and custom roles |
| Contract | None, no long-term tie-in |
*Card rates vary by card type, business size and average transaction value. Business cards and American Express typically attract higher rates. See the pricing page for current rates.
For the full anatomy of what card machine providers charge, including rental, PCI fees and exit charges, see what card machines really cost.
Buy, Rent or Pay As You Go?
Card machine providers sell terminals three ways. You can buy the hardware outright and pay only a transaction fee, rent it for a monthly charge, or take a pay-as-you-go reader with no monthly fee but a higher rate per transaction. Buying suits a business that knows it will use the terminal every day for years; renting suits one that wants to spread the cost or expects to add and remove terminals as sites open and close; pay-as-you-go readers suit very low volumes and are usually the most expensive route once a business is taking regular payments. With Atoa you can buy or rent, and because there is no long-term contract on either, switching between the two is a conversation rather than a penalty.
A Chip and PIN Machine That Also Takes Contactless and Bank Payments
Chip and PIN is still the fallback every business needs: for payments above the contactless limit, for cards that will not tap, and for customers who prefer to enter a PIN. The Atoa terminal is a full chip and PIN machine as well as a contactless one, so you are never turning a payment away, and unlike a phone-based reader it has a proper PIN pad the customer can use themselves.
How to Get a Card Machine for Your Business
Getting a card machine with Atoa takes three steps. Sign up online with your company details; Atoa works with UK-registered companies, and most applications are verified within a working day. Choose to buy or rent the PAX A920 Pro and we ship it to you; connect it to WiFi or mobile data when it arrives and it is ready to take payments. Set up your tills, sites and staff roles in the dashboard, and if you use Xero, QuickBooks or Sage, connect them so every payment reconciles automatically.
