Answers
The questions UK business owners ask us most, answered directly. Each page gives the answer first, then the detail behind it.
Card machines
How much does a card machine cost in the UK?
Purchase, rental and transaction fees, with typical price ranges.
What is the cheapest card machine in the UK?
Square, SumUp and Dojo pricing compared for different sales volumes.
What is the best card machine for a UK restaurant?
What matters at the table: speed, reliability, tips and bill splitting.
Top 5 card machines for UK restaurants
The main restaurant options side by side.
What is an authorisation fee on a card machine?
The small per-transaction charge some providers add, explained.
Business funding
What is a merchant cash advance?
A lump sum repaid as a percentage of card sales, in plain English.
Merchant cash advance vs bank loan
Costs, speed and eligibility compared.
How fast can I get a business loan in the UK?
Realistic timelines by product, based on what lenders advertise.
How much business funding can I get?
How lenders size advances and loans against turnover.
How to get business funding in the UK
Five routes compared, with eligibility criteria for each.
Small business funding options in the UK
The common options ranked by how businesses actually use them.
Business funding with bad credit
Which products weight trading history over credit scores.
Looking for definitions instead? The funding glossary covers the jargon, and our UK SME finance statistics page has the sourced numbers.