Overview
SumUp (sumup.co.uk) is a European mobile credit card processing application for iPhone and Android users that launched in mid-2012. The service is similar to its U.S. predecessors like Square and GoPayment, and it includes an EMV-compatible card reader for £59 ($69 U.S.), a phone app, account setup, and a flat processing fee of 1.69% (2.75% U.S.) for all card types and transactions with no additional fees. In April 2016, SumUp merged with Payleven, and the newly formed entity retained the SumUp brand. Currently, SumUp is available in Austria, Belgium, Brazil, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. For the purposes of this review, SumUp will be considered a UK company with UK pricing.
The company can be seen as a direct competitor to iZettle, another similar service that entered the European market around the same time as SumUp. Daniel Klein is listed as the CEO of SumUp.
Key Points
- Sales & Marketing: SumUp does not appear to hire independent sales representatives and has not received any major complaints about its sales practices.
- Costs & Contract: SumUp offers a month-to-month agreement with a fixed per-transaction fee and a one-time cost to purchase a card reader.
- Complaints & Service: SumUp has received more than 50 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: SumUp does not have a profile with the Better Business Bureau at this time.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With SumUp
Response from SumUp
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According to all available information, SumUp rates as a worthy alternative to its mobile payment app competitors in Europe and the US. The company is showing a relatively low number of complaints at this time and appears to offer transparent, affordable contract terms. The major drawback of SumUp at this time appears to be its lack of live customer support. The SumUp app is still expanding into new territories, and its overall rating is therefore subject to change as its use spreads.
About Phillip Parker
Hi, I’m Phillip Parker and I believe that the merchant account industry has been overrun by people who engage in fraud and deception in order to steal from hard working business owners. I created this website to help you avoid the bad players, save money on fees, and get peace of mind with your merchant account. If you would like to help support my work, check out my cost analysis service. I can evaluate your statement and tell you exactly how much you're overpaying for your merchant account. Get more information here.
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NEVER use Sumup. They defraud small businesses and you have no power to fight them, because their Terms & Conditions are written to give them total power to exploit you. Check other reviews and you’ll see we are the norm and not the exception.
Read their terms and conditions here https://sumup.ie/terms.” – In Term 15, it said: “We may at any time suspend or terminate and close your Account for any or No REASON at ANY TIME”. What they don’t tell you is that they will wait until there is at least €2,000 in your account first before they suspend you. AND “following the effective termination of your Account you shall immediately pay SumUp all amounts owed by you under these Terms and we shall equally pay you all amounts owed by us under these Terms. Notwithstanding the aforementioned provision, we are entitled to withhold the Reserve until the Account is finally settled, including any potential Chargebacks, but in any case not exceeding thirteen (13) months after effective termination. Translated : this means they will withhold YOUR money for between 6 -13 MONTHS and that’s exactly what they did to us.
Here’s my story, and you can find hundreds like me. We are a new, small Irish-based business that sells paintings – we just launched after investing substantial to purchase the paintings up front ie. cash is critical to us. Sumup approved our application, sold us the card reader, processed the €1 test transactions and sent us the money within 24 hours as we selected daily settlement . Over the space of a week we made sales totally €2,200. As no payments appeared in our account, we contacted Sumup multiple times and were told *everything is fine – keep using the card reader – the payment will appear shortly”. Then, disaster – we have been rejected as our business model does not meet their Terms & Conditions and we need to stop using the card reader. Massive inconvenience as we obviously don’t have a backup solution. Now here is the unbelievable piece. Not only have they completely failed us as a supplier, but they refuse to give us OUR money for 6 months. I verified with them and they admitted that every single one of our card transactions were fully and successfully processed. This in my language is FRAUD. Where a large company bullies a startup is the worst form of malpractice. No doubt they will post a reply to this – but read around and you’ll see this is common practice for them. Do not use Sumup.
My next stop is to bring this to the UK Financial Regulator – I will do my utmost to have their banking license reconsidered so that they can’t passport it across Europe committing this fraud.
i placed an order ,
they took my money wheres my machine .
how do i speak to some one ????????
Lots of marketing on Facebook so I have them a try. I work in communications and sometimes they decline this sector. I emailed them and was told it was ok they’d take my business.
As the Facebook advert said start taking payments instantly, and to be honest that’s direct. As a regulated market they hide beside this all the time and they do stretch the truth. I have 23 recorded calls of information that was not correct.
They ask for ID and I provided. Bank statement, invoice , core business. They wanted to know why I didn’t have a Facebook page. My business would generate no ROI via Facebook.
Then the conversations got more heated and I emailed Gareth Walsh a director, sure he’ll never read it but I will get it served on him.
For quick cash flow stay away from this company. I have today closed my account and 1 Out of 23 staff actually did what he said he would do so thank you Devlin.
I’ve created a twitter page summedup1 please feel free to leave any comments. Face book page up next few weeks with the operators lying on the calls .
They have a ok rating but we make our own judgements.
Mine is clearly you are in acquisition mode and doing well but your back office can’t deal with it so they tell lies.
Great they are regulated as I will be complaining to the Financial,ombudsman.
If you want to their “virtual terminal” which means being able to take payments over the phone, then forget about! They refused me because they say i’m not a trusted business! This is one of the main reasons i chose sumup since this is what they advertise. Well sum this up……..BYE!
Do not use this company. We purchased this product from a well known beauty suppliers. We opened the box only to find it was empty, so we returned it. We then purchased the product directly from sumup. On the surface the product looks great. We opened the online account and the product looked very easy to use. Then a week later we received an email from sumup explaining that we were on there excluded business model companies. WE ARE NOT and considering we originally purchached this product from a beauty wholesalers and we run a beauty business we found this very strange. The customer service team were absolutely useless. They can not give you any infomation as to why your account is canceled. They explained to me that the security team can cancel accounts when they want to and dont have to give a reason. It was explained to me that this team do not have phones and they cant be contacted. REALLY! Oh and this is a perfectly acceptable way to treat your customers as its in the terms and conditions. I cant review the product its self as we never got to use it. Stay well clear of these guys.
Absolute appalling customer service, and very very stupid. Closed my account without notice and for no reason. Customer service was rude and curt, worse than a robot. No reason to close my account, DISGUSTING!
Disgusted, I bought a Payleven reader when i opened my Business almost 3 years ago and on the whole have been really quite happy with it. Then a couple of months ago the account was changed to Sumup, everything has changed the app the account etc etc etc except how much I pay for the service, if I continue to use my Payleven reader I continue to pay 2.75% on my transactions instead of the 1.95% that Sumup advertises as its processing rate. In order to get the 1.95% rate I now have to buy another machine that is not needed. So Sumup if you are going to take my account and not give my company the same rate as others whose Accounts you hold or offer me a huge Discount on your reader, Then i am not going to give you My Business BYE BYE
The pricing is really confusing. On the US page it says special offer, get the reader for FREE, order for $69 and get this amount in credits. On the Swiss-German page it says get it for free until June 30 but there when going to order nothing further is mentioned about the discount. No vocher name is provided. This way I have no confidence that the promise is actually kept :-(
I have been with Payleven for a while and perfectly happy with their product. Their customer service desk was easy to contact and very efficient and competent.
They have now seemed to have become SumUp, I have to use their app instead with no contact number on the site! But the most annoying thing and most noticeable is that ordinary Visa payments taken on, say, Friday, for which I would have received an email Monday and payment by Wednesday are now two days later?? I’ve queried this and was told that it was still within
the 4-7 day time slot and that there
must have been something wrong
with the customer account etc….
None of this bodes well and I’m thinking about finding a new provider.
I’ve tried calling my old Payleven customer care number today, which I can still use and which would have connected me within a couple of minutes until the switch over. I gave up after eight. Very sad.
I was very disappointed with Sumup but stuck it out for 6 months before changing to iZettle. I wish I had done it months ago because the losses due to faulty terminals (5 in 6 months) and a system that needed constant battery changes (3-4 times a week). I lost a ton of business.
I bought the Pin+ machine in May this year (2016) and I am VERY satisfied so far. I don’t have large volume card sales (driving instructor) but thought it would be convenient for my customers. I only take payment in GBP and don’t need advance payments (customer/card not present). The payment process is simple and payments appear in my account usually within a week. The 1.95% fee is more than acceptable. The review and accounting options available from the web site are more than sufficient for me. E-mails from SumUp detailing weekly/monthly payments and invoices (charges) are regular and detailed.
I recently had a problem where the card unit became blocked (I was changing batteries!). A phone call to support had a new unit on its way to me and a (free) return postage slip was e-mailed to me to return the blocked unit.
Experience so far? Excellent.
Go for it. Can’t fault it.
Telephone support number is 020 3510 0160
Beware the marketing for Sum-Up which suggests that their service allows you to take payments in many other countries. We ordered their system in the belief that we could accept payments in UK, and with just a simple phone call, also in France. Reality, we now discover, is that we can only accept payments in GBP, not Euros. What customer is going to accept that happening in France? Complaints to Sum-Up now being ignored about their misleading marketing. You have been warned!
Unreliable product, terrible customer support. Avoid at all costs!
this company is a disgrace.they took payment on item i sold next email i got was to send my passport and the registration of my business and the nature of my business what i do..which i gave all information they need..one day later i got another email to send a copy of the receipt i gave the customer..i did..a day later again.i got another email to give the name and the phone number of the customer..i did…a day later i got email that my account with sumup is close and they have refund the customer..due to irregularities in the transaction.with no reason giving to me.when i even contacted the customer he told that sumup contacted him to ask if he has purchase or use the card in my shop..he said he told them yes no cause to worry..the customer did not ask for refund..sumup choose to refund the money because the guy name was on the receipt and not is wife.when both of them was at the shop during the purchase(HAVE CCTV PROOF)..i ask which name and telephone number you want on the receipt..the husband said put mine…like what every other man will do..no MAN want is wife to be bother by some shop.on a short note.SUMUP have refunded €1250 to a customer that i don’t no there were about…PLEASE AVOID THIS COMPANY OR ASK A LOT QUESTION BEFORE JOINING THEM…am now taking legal action against them..I EVEN SEND THEM PICTURE OF FRONT AND INSID THE SHOP..when i ask why they did not contact all other transaction that i have been carrying in the shop no answer from them anymore..TRUST ME THEY WILL ANSWER TO THE LAW,
Got a card reader and didn’t know it didn’t accept over the phone payments..sent them many emails
And as they don’t have a contact number there no one to answer too…I would say to anyone steer clear of this company…If anything goes wrong theres no one to on the other side of the phone or email.
I have sent my machine back to them and am awaiting a refund..but will have to go the legal route as they only want your money and that’s it..no back up what so ever..Their a disgrace to call them selves a co.
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Hi everybody please avoid Sumup like the plague this company has no concept of customer service ordered a machine still not received three weeks after after numerous emails they said the order was cancelled I sent a screenshot of the payment I have lost over €800 as I was unable to take card payments when asked for compensation they keep on avoiding the issue.
It’s better to pay a higher rate of interest with a company that has a phone number
I am in the UK. I took the chip+pin device with me this weekend for the first time and didn’t work! The message on the display said ‘device blocked, please contact support centre’. No telephone number provided, I sent them two e-mails yesterday (Sun) and one this morning, which haven’t even been acknowledged. I lost some sales for this and I am really not happy for the total lack of support. What a waste of money and time!
My problem is that my card reader, once setup, did & does not work. It just says Sumup in the window when it is turned on & nothing else happens no matter what I do. Have emailed them & even responded to their email to me asking if something is wrong because I have not used it. Needless to say, I responded to this & they have not replied. After reading the other posts here, I am glad it has not worked because I could be chasing payment from them instead of help. I think I will just write it off to experience & use someone else. (Why don`t they provide a UK contact number?
Can anyone help with Sumup uk telephone number?,
I took a large payment from a client nine days ago and i cant seem to get the money out of sumup. They were good for a year, not sure what has gone wrong now.
This service is absolutely poor. I have been waiting for a refund for the last 2 weeks for 2 card machines that were sent to me blocked.
I have contacted customer service a number of times. They have LIED to me and said that the payment has been transfered but it hasn’t. My bank has also confirmed this several times.
The customer service people are extremely rude. Your are no better than a thief. Please can you return my money.
Avoid Sum app!!!!
Ordered and received my card reader with absolutely no problems or delays.
Set up the account and made a test payment before going to an event where I needed to take a lot of credit card payments.
Whilst taking payments I received a notification from SumUp that they needed more documents. Luckily I had this info so emailed it to them. Then got another request, this time for more company info as well as invoices and customer contact details for transactions already taken! I thought that the point of using the system was that it generated receipts by email or text if the customer wanted it so I didn’t have to print out invoices!
My account stopped taking payments during the peak period of my sales during the weekend so I tried calling customer support but of course they’re closed at the weekend!
When I got home I sent all the documents requested, then wait and wait. Still no payment into my account so I call them and they ask all the same info over the phone that I’ve provided by email.
They ask for one more document concerning my business registration to be sent to them so I send it.
Then I receive another email asking for proof of address which I have already sent them!
Over a month since the event and my money is still stuck with them.
I’m starting to think that all these delay tactics are just to keep a large balance of their clients money in their bank account which they’re earning interest from.
Why did they not ask for all this info before they allowed my initial test transaction to go through? I wouldn’t have several thousand stuck in their account now.
Not sure if I would use them again but perhaps they’re the best of a bad bunch?
I purchased sumup on the 10th of June and still I have not recieved my card terminal. I have emailed them numerous times and got 1 reply to provide them with proof of purchase as it did not show up on their records that I had paid. I sent them proof and have not heard anything since that was 11 days ago and I am getting really frustrated.
I paid €94.00 in total and still nothing I also have since sent them about 10 emails and no reply. Their customer service is appalling and it’s really frustrating that there is no phone number to call.
I don’t really know where to go from here and I want a refund!
SumUp looks like an exceptionally attractive option for a small business where they may opt to accept credit cards when out and about for products or services. Even the simple rates of a standard 1.95% across the board is fine, but when you read comments like these from 2012 up to date in 2015, without any improvement over the 3 year period, you can’t help but feeling that there is a non-existent customer service behind this company and when you are a small business looking to offer a payment method to your customers so that you can get paid, this really is vital. It’s such a shame. I have emailed their customer service’s email address a few times with a couple of pre-purchase queries with no answers – Hardly instills confidence in them. I’ve decided not to go ahead with a SumUp account, but I am genuinely disappointed by this as it looks like it could have been great. Their loss and not mine I suspect, as more and more options become available.
I used sumup for the first time with a customer yesterday 11 June 2015 – process of taking a payment hassle free, however, today I receive an email asking for a copy of the customer invoice and some further details about my business – none of which I had a problem providing. I emailed the document to sumup with an explanation about my business – I then followed the email up with a phone call – which was answered very politely and asked if my email had been received – it hadn’t which is a bit concerning – nevertheless the agent taking my call asked me to forward to her direct – which I did. I then had to take a photo of the invoice I supplied to my customer and send that off (via email again) as the scan wasn’t clear. No problem – however when I followed that email up with a phone call, I just kept getting a message stating that their offices were closed and to call back during office hours – (this was midday and their office hours are 8am to 5pm.
So now I don’t know if they have received my email (the second one) and if it is acceptable and that the payment process to my bank account can be completed.
It’s a real shame as the process of getting the sumup hardware, setting up the software and actually using the thing is really quite good,
On 28 May I ordered a SumUp card reader (in the Netherlands), with the knowledge that it would be delivered in a few working days. So far I have not received the card reader. On 1 June I received an (automatic) mail from the Dutch office that they are awaiting my payment, whereas I have paid the card reader on 28 May. I informed them accordingly (with a screenshot of the payment) through an email to [email protected], but got no response. On 5 June I received an email from the German office that payment was received. But no info on delivery. On 8 June I received another automatic email from the Dutch office that they were awaiting payment. I replied again explaining the situation, but got no response again…
As I will need the card reader tomorrow (Thursday 11 June) I would very much appreciate communication from any Support Office that my card reader will indeed be delivered soon!
Hope very much to hear from you.
I have had a card reader for around 10 days now, I have been emailing customer support alomst daily for the last 7 DAYS trying to find out if I can take pre-authorisations (also know as deferred payments) on my reader. The main reason I got the reader is to take pre-authorisations as damage deposits for the camper hire business I run. I have sent 6 messages in total through both my account support form and email direct to sum up support – not a SINGLE ONE has been answered. You cannot call them, so I am now in limbo I’ve spent £70 on a reader which may be useles for my purposes – please somebody get in TOUCH! I am appalled with the level of customer service, the rates might be good but there is a reason for that.
They keep asking for the same documentation after i sent it and told them i sent it.
Not sure if they are confused or lack intelligence, now looking for alternative option
The verification process is ridiculously long winded and they do not understand UK business law.
They are based in Germany and are very German centric.
They have £500 of our that they let us take and are now threatening to never allow us access to this money.
I think they may be a scam where they make their money from merchants who get sick of jumping through their hoops and give up.
They never return calls and just keep asking for further documentation. Some of which does not exist in the UK.
SCAM or just not very good I’m not sure but they have £500 of ours and we need the money.
This company have taken payments and not moved them into my account.
they are not answering there phones, all very worrying
Hi Paul,
I am having the same trouble with them. No one answering the phone or email really worried. Might stop taking payments through them to be on the safe side. Let us know if you had a luck getting through
I have had the same thing
Waste of time for me too unless it takes VISA via the reader. As a London taxi driver I need AMEX as well.
Shame all the instructions were not clear at the beginning.
Hello Rob,
As I mentioned in my comments below, we are continuing to work with Visa Europe to allow acceptance of Visa cards also through a card reader in the future. Also, we have recently announced that we will be accepting American Express as well in the near future (https://sumup.co.uk/sumup-to-accept-american-express/?lang=en_GB).
Regards,
Chris
My problem with sum up is the time it is still taking for me to receive the money I took nearly 3 weeks ago now. In the faqs sum up says it will make ‘daily deposits’ once you’ve met the threshold and your account is verified – both of these I had met.
It then goes onto say it may take 7-10 working days for you to receive your money. In fact what i’ve established from emails to/from sum up support is that deposits are made 7-10 working days with an email sent confirming the same (infuriatingly this hasn’t happened in my case), with a further 2-3 working days possibly needed for the money to show in your account.
Factoring in the long bank holiday 11 working days have nearly passed and I’ve still not received the money. Having chased support I’ve now been told the bank details they’d used were incorrect and it could take another 7-10 working days for me to receive my money. Given that I had sent them a copy of a letter from my bank (certified by a solicitor) that confirmed my account details I find it hard to see how a mistake has been made and why I have to wait potentially a further two weeks for my money. As a small business this is not feasible and causes a lot of problems.
Even more infuriating is that when I initially queried where my money was I asked to check the bank details they had – I received no response to this particular question which is a shame because the problem I am now faced with could have been avoided.
As a side note, when I initially discovered it could take up to 10 working days for me to receive my money I looked elsewhere for another card reader and found intuitpay – it had just been released and they were giving them away for free. I subsequently ordered one, received it, took a test payment which arrived in my account yesterday! Needless to say I’ll be using this one instead of sum up from now on.
Hello Gemma,
I’m sorry you experienced delays in your deposits. If you can email me your email address and/or merchant ID, I will investigate the problem personally. [email protected]
Best,
Chris
I feel like Ive been mis sold or mislead. The card reader I received wasn’t the card reader I signed up for. Isn’t that false advertisement, shouldnt it be illegal to do that. I am severely disappointed I was really excited at the prospect of this product but that has been a big let down. Most of my customers will probably Debit card owners so a chip reader is what I need not a swipe..thingy.
Sigh Rant over.
Hi Victoria,
Not a problem. Send an email to [email protected] and they will get a chip reader out to you immediately.
Thanks,
Chris
Signed up for this a week or so ago. Whilst the account set-up went well, it’s just been a disappointment since then.
I did not receive a chip and pin reader as shown on their website, but a mag stripe reader. Most people in the UK are wary of their card being swiped nowadays (as it has associations with card skimming), so that’s a major negative.
Secondly, from looking at their site you’d believe you can accept Visa & Mastercard. Here’s the process for accepting a Visa card as provided by their customer service staff:
· When you want to accept a Visa card, simply select “Visa” from the choice of payment methods and enter your customer’s mobile phone number.
· Your customer immediately receives a text message with a unique link to a secure website that opens on the customer’s mobile phone browser.
· On this website, your customer enters the Visa card’s details and completes the transaction.
So, if your customer doesn’t have a smart phone or can’t remember all their account access details then the transaction will fail.
This is not currently a card solution for small businesses, it is a halfway house that will leave customers and businesses frustrated. At lease it doesn’t cost anything to sign up!
Hi firebird_uk,
Chris Campana here from SumUp.
Different card associations (such as Visa and MasterCard) have different rules regarding how transactions can be accepted through mobile devices. Because of Visa Europe’s rules, Visa card acceptance is currently not possible via the SumUp card reader, but can be completed by manually entering the Visa card’s details on your customer’s phone.
We are working together with Visa Europe to allow acceptance of Visa cards also through a card reader in the future.
If you need further assistance, feel free to contact me at [email protected].
Best,
Chris
Can we enter the card number manually to all credit card types or just Visa? Thanks.
Customer service does not answer emails and no phone number provided. Visa payments only work on a smart phone as the swipe doesn’t work on Visa cards. Takes Mastercard OK … Sorry waste of time at present.