How to Choose a Credit Card Machine for Small Business

To choose a credit card machine for small business use, start with where you take payments (a counter, a table, a truck, a job site), then pick the device type built for that spot. A terminal or reader you buy or lease should read chip, tap and swipe, be approved under the PCI Security Standards Council’s device standard, and come on terms you fully understand. For tap to pay on a phone, the phone must be on your provider’s supported-device list.

The machine is only one part of what taking cards costs, but it can be the hardest decision to undo, because of a lease that can’t be cancelled or a terminal that works with only one processor. Below are the six common device types, the features each one needs, and how to weigh buying against leasing.

The six types of card machines, matched to where you get paid

Most small businesses choose among six device types. The deciding question is where the customer is standing when they pay, and what else the machine has to do.

Device type	Where it fits	How it connects	What to watch
Countertop terminal	A fixed checkout counter	Internet cable or Wi-Fi, sometimes a phone line	Often standalone, with amounts keyed in by hand
Wireless or cellular terminal	Tableside service, delivery, curbside pickup	Wi-Fi, cellular data, or both	Battery life, signal where you work, any data plan charge
Mobile reader with a phone app	Markets, events, field service	Bluetooth to an app on your phone or tablet	Your phone’s battery and signal; confirm it reads chip and tap
Android smart terminal	Counter or handheld use, with apps and tipping built in	Wi-Fi, cellular, or both	Which processors the exact model is certified with
Full POS station	Restaurants and shops that need menus, inventory and staff logins	Internet, plus printers, cash drawers and handhelds	Software subscriptions, and whether it is locked to one processor
Tap to pay on a phone	Occasional or on-the-go sales, or a backup lane	The phone’s built-in contactless (NFC) reader	Contactless only: no chip insert and no swipe

To see specific models in each category, the POS systems and hardware overview groups them by brand, and the pages on Dejavoo smart terminals, Clover POS systems and Square POS systems go model by model.

A quick way to narrow it down

• One counter and no inventory to track: a countertop or smart terminal.
• Staff bring the payment to the customer: a wireless or handheld smart terminal.
• A new location every week: a mobile reader or tap to pay on a phone.
• Menus, inventory, staff permissions and reporting: a POS system, not just a card machine.

What every terminal or card reader should support

For a terminal or card reader you buy or lease, a few capabilities aren’t optional. Use this checklist when you compare models or read a quote.

• EMV chip. The chip creates a unique code for each transaction, which the card issuer checks. Under Visa’s liability shift, effective in October 2015, the cost of counterfeit fraud falls on whichever party, merchant or issuer, has not implemented chip technology.
• Contactless and mobile wallets. Tap payments use the same EMV chip standard over a short-range wireless link, and phones and watches act as contactless chip cards. Mastercard said in August 2026 that contactless now makes up nearly 80% of its in-person transactions worldwide.
• Swipe, for now. In the same August 2026 update, Mastercard said U.S. banks won’t be required to issue its chip cards with a magnetic stripe starting in 2027, but U.S. terminals must keep a stripe reader as an option.
• PCI PTS approval. The PCI Security Standards Council’s PIN Transaction Security (PTS) standard covers devices that protect PINs and card data at the point of sale, including readers that pair with a phone or tablet. The Council encourages merchants and their acquirers to choose from its approved device list, so check the exact model.
• Encryption. Card data should be encrypted inside the device, before it travels anywhere.

Tap to pay on a phone is the exception: it takes contactless payments only and falls under a separate PCI standard for phones (MPoC). Its equivalent checks, a phone on your provider’s supported-device list and an app that is a PCI-listed MPoC solution, are covered in the next section.

Two points from the Council’s FAQs matter here. PCI DSS itself doesn’t require PTS-approved devices, but some card brands have their own rules, including on devices with expired approvals, and the Council refers merchants to their acquirer. And an approved device doesn’t by itself make a business PCI compliant or shrink its compliance scope, because on many terminals encryption is optional and can be controlled by the payment software.

That is where point-to-point encryption (P2PE) comes in. A PCI-listed P2PE solution protects card data from the moment the card is read until it reaches a secure decryption point, which the Council says can significantly reduce a merchant’s PCI DSS validation effort. If a machine is described as encrypted, ask whether it’s part of one.

Tap to pay on a phone: when it’s enough, and when it isn’t

Tap to pay turns a phone into the card reader, so there’s no separate device to buy or charge. Apple says Tap to Pay on iPhone needs no extra terminals or hardware and accepts contactless cards, Apple Pay and other digital wallets.

• On iPhone: Apple lists an iPhone Xs or later, the latest version of iOS, and a supported payment app, which is where you turn the feature on. It also notes that some contactless cards may not be accepted by your payment app and that transaction limits may apply.
• On Android: there is no single requirements list. Each payment provider sets its own supported devices and Android versions for Tap to Pay in its app. As examples, Stripe’s documentation currently lists Android 13 or later, a built-in NFC sensor, a phone that isn’t rooted and a security update from the past year, and Square’s help center lists Android 9 or higher with NFC turned on. Check your own provider’s list before counting on a particular phone.

Phone-based acceptance has its own PCI standard, Mobile Payments on COTS (MPoC), which covers contactless and PIN acceptance on off-the-shelf phones and tablets. The Council keeps a list of MPoC solutions, so ask whether your provider’s app is on it.

The trade-off is that a phone reads only contactless payments, so a customer whose card can’t tap needs another way to pay. That makes tap to pay a good fit for low-volume, on-the-go or backup use, and a weaker fit as the only lane at a busy counter. The mobile and wireless payments page compares the phone-based and handheld options.

Processor-locked machines and what happens when you switch

A card machine only works with the processors it has been certified and set up for, and some can’t be moved to another processor at all. Clover’s own FAQ puts it plainly: “While Clover POS devices may be purchased or leased from other entities, they cannot be used with other payment processors.” Other manufacturers publish which processing platforms each model is certified with; Dejavoo’s certification page, for example, lists compatibility by terminal line.

This matters when you buy and again when you leave. A used or discounted machine may be tied to a provider you don’t use, and a locked machine you own outright may need replacing if you change processors.

A locked system isn’t automatically a bad choice; an all-in-one platform can suit a business that wants its software, hardware and processing from one place. Just know which kind you’re buying, and count the cost of leaving. If you’re weighing a change, the guide to switching credit card processors without downtime covers whether to reprogram, re-key or replace each device.

Buying, leasing, or getting a machine through your provider

There are three common ways to get a machine: buy it, lease it, or receive it under a processing agreement. The differences are what you owe, for how long, and what happens if your plans change.

Question	Buy outright	Lease	Provided with processing
Who owns it	You do, from day one	The leasing company, unless you buy it out	Set by the agreement; ask
Cash up front	The full price	Little or none	Little or none
Total cost	The purchase price	Every payment for the full term, plus added fees and any buyout	Depends on the agreement; ask how the device is paid for
If you switch processors	You keep it, if it can be reprogrammed	Payments may continue; the lease can be a separate contract	Return terms and any early termination fee apply
If you close or downsize	You keep the device	Remaining payments may still be owed	Return terms and any early termination fee apply

Why a lease deserves a close read

In 2018, the Federal Trade Commission warned small businesses about equipment leases sold with a promise that they could cancel any time. It said businesses can end up paying thousands to lease equipment that would have cost a few hundred dollars to buy, that agreements can hold the owner or the signer responsible for the debt, and that some can require disputes to be heard in another state.

The law can also make some leases hard to exit. Under Uniform Commercial Code section 2A-407, in a finance lease that isn’t a consumer lease, the lessee’s promises become “irrevocable and independent” once it accepts the goods, and can’t be cancelled or changed without the other party’s consent. Whether a given terminal lease is a finance lease depends on its terms and your state’s law, which is a question for your attorney.

A worked example: the same machine, bought or leased

For example, say a countertop terminal is offered two ways: $600 to buy, or $49 a month on a 48-month lease. These are made-up round numbers to show the arithmetic, not a quote.

• Buy: in this example you pay $600 once, and the machine is yours.
• Lease: in this example, 48 payments of $49 come to $2,352, before any sales tax, insurance or damage-waiver charges and before any end-of-term buyout.
• Leave after two years: if the lease can’t be cancelled, the remaining 24 payments, $1,176 in this example, may still be owed.

Over its full term, the lease in this example costs nearly four times the purchase price. A lease can still make sense when cash is tight, but compare it on the total of all payments.

Read your lease for these terms

• Whether it can be cancelled early, and what ending it early costs
• The full term, the monthly payment, and the total of all payments
• Taxes, insurance or other charges added to each payment
• Who owns the machine at the end, and the buyout price if there is one
• Whether it renews automatically, and how much notice stops the renewal
• Who signs as personally responsible, and whether the lease can be sold to another company
• Which state’s courts would hear a dispute
• A complete copy of everything you sign, which the FTC advises getting in writing

How to choose a credit card machine for small business, step by step

1. Map where payments happen. List every spot (counter, table, curbside, job site, market stall) and which ones need a machine at the same time. Phone and online sales need a virtual terminal or online checkout instead.
2. List what else the device must do. Print receipts, prompt for tips, split checks, track inventory or handle staff logins.
3. Confirm the must-haves. For a terminal or reader: chip, tap and swipe; PCI PTS approval for the exact model; and encryption, ideally within a PCI-listed P2PE solution. For tap to pay on a phone: a phone on your provider’s supported-device list, and an app that is a PCI-listed MPoC solution.
4. Check processor compatibility. Ask which processors the model works with, whether it can be reprogrammed, and what happens to it if you switch.
5. Price the whole setup over the time you expect to use it. Add device or lease payments, any software or data plan, and processing fees on your expected card volume.
6. Read every agreement before you sign. That includes any lease, which may be a separate contract with a separate company. Keep copies.
7. Test before you rely on it. Run a live sale and a refund, and confirm the deposit lands as expected before your busiest day.

Questions to ask your provider before you sign

PayPoint Systems is an independent merchant services provider based in Northwest Indiana, not the card processor, and these are the questions we would want any business to ask any provider before signing, us included.

• Is this exact terminal or reader on the PCI approved device list, and is its approval current?
• Is card data encrypted in the device, and is it part of a PCI-listed P2PE solution?
• For tap to pay on a phone, is my phone on your supported-device list, and is your app a PCI-listed MPoC solution?
• Which processors does this model work with, and can it be reprogrammed if I leave?
• Am I buying, leasing or borrowing it, and who owns it at the end?
• If it is leased, what is the total of all payments, and can the lease be cancelled early?
• Are there monthly software, data plan or support fees on top of processing?
• If it fails, how is it replaced, how quickly, and who pays?

Frequently Asked Questions

Related guides

• How to Switch Credit Card Processors Without Downtime
• The Cheapest Way for a Small Business to Accept Credit Cards

Sources

• Tap to Pay on iPhone, Apple
• Tap to Pay, Stripe documentation
• Accept payments with Tap to Pay on Android, Square Support Center
• PIN Transaction Security (PTS) Point of Interaction (POI) Standard, PCI Security Standards Council
• FAQ 1301: How should payment terminals be considered during a PCI DSS assessment?, PCI Security Standards Council
• FAQ 1302: How does use of an expired PTS device affect my PCI DSS compliance?, PCI Security Standards Council
• Securing Account Data with the PCI Point-to-Point Encryption Standard v3, PCI Security Standards Council
• Mobile Payments on COTS (MPoC), PCI Security Standards Council
• Visa to Help Accelerate EMV Chip Migration and Support Merchants (June 16, 2016), Visa
• Swiping left on magnetic stripes (updated August 26, 2026), Mastercard
• What is EMV Chip?, EMVCo
• Apple Pay security and privacy overview, Apple Support
• Clover POS FAQs, Clover
• Certifications, Dejavoo
• Credit card processing “deals” may be scams (June 21, 2018), Federal Trade Commission
• UCC 2A-407: Irrevocable Promises: Finance Leases, Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School

This article is general information for business owners, not legal, tax, or accounting advice. Card brand rules, interchange schedules, and processor agreements change; confirm specifics against your own statement and your own signed agreement.