Card Machines and the PSTN Switch-Off: The Easy Fix With a Catch

Quick answer

Most business card machines stopped using the phone line years ago - they already connect over broadband, WiFi or mobile data. If yours does still dial out, it stops working on 31 January 2027, and the fix is straightforward: your card provider (the acquirer) replaces or reconfigures the terminal, very often at no charge for the hardware. The catch is commercial rather than technical. A "free" terminal swap is frequently packaged with a fresh three- or four-year merchant services agreement, and that contract can cost you far more than the terminal ever would. Fix the technology, but read the paperwork.

This is the item on the switch-off list I am least worried about technically and most worried about commercially. Compared with an alarm or a lift, replacing a dial-up card terminal is easy - short lead times, no safety implications, and the hardware is usually thrown in. But card processing is one of the more opaque things a small business buys, and a deadline-driven upgrade is a very effective moment to sell somebody a worse deal while doing them a favour. So this guide covers both halves: how to check whether you are affected, and how not to pay for the privilege of being fixed. If you need the lines behind the terminal sorted too, get a no-obligation quote.

First: does your card machine actually use the phone line?

A surprising number of businesses are paying for a line that a card machine stopped using several years ago. Work through these:

If you are unsure, ring the number on your merchant statement and ask directly: "Is our terminal connected by phone line, ethernet or mobile?" They can see it from the terminal ID. That single call resolves it in minutes.

Then do the reverse check, because it is worth real money: look at your phone bill for a line that used to feed the card machine and is still being charged. Terminals get upgraded to broadband and nobody remembers to cease the line. Legacy line rental has risen steeply through 2026, so a forgotten line is more expensive now than it has ever been - see the WLR price rises. Our audit-first approach exists largely because of charges like this.

What replaces a dial-up card terminal

For a shop or a restaurant where a failed card payment is a lost sale, the hybrid option is the one I would push for. Once your terminal depends on the same broadband as your phones and your alarm signalling, a single connectivity failure takes out three things at once - and a queue of customers who cannot pay is the most visible of the three. That is worth a conversation about failover and resilience rather than an assumption.

The good news, briefly

Compared with the rest of the switch-off list, this is genuinely simple:

• Lead time is short - typically days rather than the weeks that alarm and lift work needs.
• Hardware is often free on an existing or renewed merchant agreement.
• No safety implications, no compliance certificate to file, no engineer scheduling problem.
• It is reversible - if a terminal does not suit your setup, terminals get swapped all the time.

Which is exactly why it should not be your first phone call. Deal with the alarm and the lift first, because those are the constraints on your timeline. The card machine will still be a one-week job in November. Our switch-off deadline guide sets out the order.

Now the catch: what a "free" terminal actually costs

Here is the pattern I have seen repeatedly. A business is told, correctly, that its terminal needs replacing before the switch-off. The acquirer offers a new terminal at no cost. The business, relieved, signs. What it has often signed is a new three- or four-year merchant services agreement, and inside that agreement:

• The transaction rates may be higher than the ones being replaced, or restructured in a way that is hard to compare.
• A monthly terminal rental appears, or increases, sometimes exceeding the hardware's value several times over across the term.
• Early termination charges now apply, so you cannot shop around until 2030.
• Add-ons appear - PCI compliance fees, statement fees, minimum monthly service charges, gateway fees.
• Any rate review you had negotiated resets.

None of this is hidden exactly, but it is presented as administration attached to a favour. The terminal is worth a modest amount. The contract is worth a great deal more, which is why it is the terminal that is free.

To be fair to the acquirers: they have a legitimate cost to recover and a genuine deadline to work to. The problem is only that the deadline gives them a reason you cannot argue with, at a moment when you feel obliged.

What to check before you sign anything

• Is a new contract term involved? If yes, how long, and what are the early termination charges?
• Get the rates in writing - every rate, per card type, including commercial and international cards.
• Compare against your current effective rate. Take last month's total charges divided by total card turnover. That single percentage is the only number that matters, and it is the one nobody quotes you.
• Ask what the terminal costs outright, and price rental across the full term against it.
• List every fixed monthly fee - terminal rental, PCI, statement, minimum service charge, gateway.
• Ask whether your existing terminal can simply be reconfigured for ethernet or WiFi. Sometimes it can, at no cost and with no new contract.
• Get at least one competing quote. A deadline is a reason to act, not a reason to stop comparing.
• Confirm the old phone line can then be ceased, and actually cease it.

That third point is the one to hold on to. Merchant pricing is deliberately hard to compare - interchange, scheme fees and acquirer margin arrive bundled in different shapes. Your blended effective rate cuts through all of it. If a "free terminal" offer moves that percentage up, the terminal is not free. Our switch-off cost guide applies the same logic to the rest of the project.

The security angle worth knowing

Moving a terminal from a phone line to your network changes its security position. Card terminals sit inside PCI DSS scope, and once a terminal is on your LAN, your network is part of that picture. You do not need to become an expert, but two things are worth doing:

• Ask your acquirer what the terminal needs - most modern terminals are designed to be dropped onto a standard business network and handle their own encryption, and many acquirers provide guidance or a simplified self-assessment.
• Keep payment terminals off your guest WiFi, and ideally on their own network segment. This is standard good practice and your IT support can arrange it.

If your card machine will share a connection with your phones and your alarm, that connection is now carrying money, voice and security signalling. It deserves a business-grade service rather than the cheapest available.

The bottom line

Check first - there is a good chance your terminal already runs over broadband or mobile and you have nothing to do except cease a line you are still paying for. If it does dial out, it will stop authorising payments after 31 January 2027, and replacing it is the easiest job on your switch-off list: short lead times and usually free hardware.

Just separate the two decisions. Accept the terminal, and treat the merchant services contract attached to it as an entirely separate negotiation you were not planning to have this year. Get your blended effective rate, get a competing quote, and do not sign a four-year term because of a deadline that has nothing to do with card rates.

If the line behind your terminal is one of several you need to deal with, we will audit the lot and tell you which are actually in use: get a no-obligation quote or call 0333 006 9399.

Getting unknown calls on a business line? Our free UK phone number checker shows which network or provider Ofcom allocated any number to, and whether the range is in service — no sign-up.