Why tradespeople should stop accepting card payments
A plumber messaged me last month. He'd just invoiced a client for £500 work. The client paid by card. By the time the processor took their cut, he'd lost £12.50. He wasn't complaining about the amount. He was angry because it was avoidable.
The card processor math that nobody questions
Most tradespeople don't think much about payment methods. A client asks how to pay, you say "card or bank transfer," they pick card, and the money lands in your account minus a percentage. Standard practice. That's exactly why it costs you so much.
Card processors take between 2% and 3% per transaction. On a £500 invoice, that's £10 to £15. On a £1,000 kitchen tile job, it's £20 to £30. Over a year, if you're turning over £30,000 in work, you're handing processors between £600 and £900. That's a week's profit vanishing into thin air because you didn't question the default.
Tradespeople are builders and electricians, not payment technologists. So we accept that this is just how things work. Card networks have been around for decades. They must be the best option, right? Wrong.
Bank-to-bank is simpler than you think
When we started building Invoicr, we looked at how small tradespeople actually get paid. Most of them already use bank transfers for some clients. "Just send me a bank transfer" is what independent plumbers and gardeners say to their regular customers. It's cheap, immediate, and relies on infrastructure every UK business already has.
Open banking technology means you don't have to send an invoice and then manually chase a client to make a transfer. Instead, they click a link in your invoice. Their bank app opens. They authorize the payment in a few seconds. Done. It's not more complicated than card payments. It's actually faster because there's no "pending" phase, no 3-day hold. The money lands the same day.
On that same £500 invoice, a bank transfer costs roughly £4. Not a percentage. A flat, small fee. The difference between £4 and £12.50 is the difference between breaking even on an admin task and actually keeping the money you earned.
Why clients prefer it, even if they don't know it yet
Here's something that surprised us during the first weeks: clients said yes faster when paying by bank transfer. A decorator told us his customers were relieved they didn't have to dig out a card or worry about their card details online. One elderly client said she felt safer knowing her bank was handling it, not some third-party payment gateway.
Cards are fine for retail. You walk into a shop, you hand over a card, it's quick. But for invoices to tradespeople, bank transfer makes sense. It's deliberate. The client authorizes it from their own bank account. There's no middleman company holding their details.
We also built WhatsApp delivery into Invoicr. Most tradespeople already message their clients on WhatsApp. Instead of sending an invoice via email and hoping they open it, you send it via the same app they use for everything else. The invoice lands with a payment link. Clients click it. It works.
The numbers add up when you stop bleeding fees
Let's say you're a plumber or electrician doing £2,000 a month in jobs. You invoice 4 clients at £500 each. On card, you pay £50 in fees that month. On bank transfer, you pay roughly £16. That's £34 saved. Over a year, it's over £400.
For a one-man operation or a small team, £400 is real money. It's a new cordless drill. It's petrol for a month. It's a contingency when a month's quieter than expected. It's not a gimmick. It's not passive income. It's money you earned that isn't being funneled to Visa or Mastercard.
We built Invoicr specifically for this. Not for enterprise accounting. Not for companies with accountants on staff. For sole traders and small tradespeople in the UK who want to invoice faster and keep more of what they earn. Free tier gets you started with 5 invoices a month. If you're invoicing more than that, Pro adds unlimited invoices, automated reminders that chase payment without you nagging clients, and quotes so you can estimate jobs before you price them.
One thing card processors won't tell you
Card companies benefit from you not thinking about alternatives. They've built their entire market on being "standard." Nobody questions Visa. Everyone accepts it. So there's no pressure to innovate or lower fees. They know most tradespeople won't bother switching.
But you've got options. Open banking has been live in the UK for years. It's not new. It's not risky. It's the same technology your regular clients are already using to log into their online banking. The infrastructure is solid.
If half the tradespeople in Britain switched to bank transfer payments tomorrow, card networks would have to rethink their pricing. They'd have to prove their value instead of just existing. Until then, they'll keep taking £12.50 from your £500 invoices and assuming you won't notice.
The question isn't whether bank-to-bank payments work. It's why you're still handing money to card processors when you don't have to. How much are you losing every month without realizing it?
Ready to try Invoicr by MRVL?
One tap to download. No sign-up wall.