Renting or buying a card terminal: what the sum over 60 months really produces

The short answer

There is no general answer — there is one per provider, and they point in opposite directions. On the CCV Base Next, renting is today cheaper than buying across every one of the four terms on offer; on the Nexi SmartPOS A77, buying has paid for itself after roughly seven months. So anyone asking “rent or buy?” is asking the second most important question; the most important one is which monthly base fee carries on after the purchase.

On a small card turnover, a purchased device with no minimum term and no base fee is usually cheapest; from around 10,000 euros of card turnover a month the percentage matters more than the rent (monthly sum for a kiosk and a bakery further down). Looking for Austria? Different providers and terms apply there — see the separate guide renting or buying a card terminal in Austria.

Renting or buying a card terminal — which is cheaper?

Let us start with the sum rather than the theory. CCV is one of the few providers that publishes rental and purchase terms for the same devices. All figures below retrieved from the CCV product pages on 22 September 2026.

Rent on the CCV Base Next is tiered by term:

Term	Monthly rate	Total over the term
24 months	€24.71	€593.04
36 months	€21.21	€763.56
48 months (flagged by CCV as “customer favourite”)	€16.71	€802.08
60 months	€13.21	€792.60

That table alone repays a look: the longest term has the lowest monthly rate, but not the lowest total. The most expensive option is precisely the one CCV singles out as its customer favourite — €802.08 against €593.04 over 24 months. The monthly rate falls while the bill rises.

Against that, the purchase: CCV states a purchase price of €449 for the Base Next and €9.00 a month thereafter for service and support. So the monthly rate does not disappear when you buy, it merely shrinks.

Useful life	Purchase (€449 + €9.00/month)	Rent at the matching term
24 months	€665.00	€593.04
36 months	€773.00	€763.56
48 months	€881.00	€802.08
60 months	€989.00	€792.60

The purchase loses over all four periods. And it gets sharper: work out the month in which buying undercuts the respective rent, and that point falls beyond the end of the rental term every single time — at 28.6 months against the 24-month rate, 36.8 against the 36-month one, 58.2 against the 48-month one and 106.6 months, that is just under nine years, against the 60-month one. A device that only pays off in its ninth year does not pay off. The one-off stability surcharge of €27.50 applies either way and does not move the comparison.

One qualification belongs with this: the same CCV page contradicts itself. In the worked example the Compact A77 carries “one-off acquisition and connection costs” of €299, while the table below it says €762; in the same paragraph the per-transaction fee is first given as €0.06 and then calculated at €0.07. Anyone carrying such figures into their own offer should have them confirmed in writing.

How do buying and renting differ?

Not in ownership of the hardware — that is where they differ least. They differ in four points, and only two of them appear in the offer:

	Rent	Purchase
One-off payment	little to none, plus the stability surcharge	full device price
Monthly fixed costs	rental rate, service usually included	service flat fee that carries on — unless it is expressly waived
Replacement on failure	with the provider; CCV advertises advance replacement	with the merchant; after the warranty expires, at their own cost
Expiring device certification	risk sits with the provider	risk sits with the merchant

Rows three and four are the real price difference, and they are the reason the rental can be costed competitively at CCV at all. Terminals age not only technically but in regulatory terms: PCI PTS POI v7 is replacing v6 for new device approvals, and for SoftPOS the older SPoC and CPoC standards expire during 2026. Whoever buys carries that risk themselves — on a purchase, REA Card grants twelve months of warranty under its contractual partner terms, after which it is the merchant’s affair.

Buying or renting a card terminal — at Nexi the answer flips

The same question, the same market, the opposite result. Nexi offers the mobile SmartPOS A77 in its “pay-as-you-go package” for a one-off €99, expressly “without a set-up fee, without transaction fees”, with a merchant discount rate of 1.19 per cent. Devices are available to rent from €15 a month, with a merchant discount rate from 1.19 per cent; provision currently costs €1 according to the promotional footnote (promotional period since extended to 31 October 2026, last retrieved on 1 October 2026).

The percentage is identical either way. That makes the sum trivial: buying costs €98 more at the start and €15 less per month. From the seventh month onwards the purchase is cheaper, and over four years it is €99 against €721 — a difference of €622 for identical hardware.

Nexi nevertheless recommends the purchase package only “for merchants with a low card turnover (up to approx. 2,000 euros a month). At a higher turnover the rental variant is usually the one that pays.” That sentence cannot be reconstructed from the published figures: if the merchant discount rate is 1.19 per cent in both cases, more turnover does not make the rental cheaper, it merely makes both routes dearer. It would only follow if rental customers received a lower turnover tier — the footnote refers to a “contractually agreed turnover tier”, but those tiers are not published. And the terminal page names no contract term at all; it speaks only of “flexible contract terms”. Only the promotion page states 48 months for the rental (retrieved on 1 October 2026) — for the purchase package the information is still missing. Both are exactly the questions to put in writing before signing.

What fixed costs do to small basket sizes

Terminal rental and the service flat fee are fixed costs and therefore work like a second merchant discount rate, one that rises as turnover falls. A bakery with 1,500 card payments a month at an average ticket size of €6.80 does €10,200 of card turnover; the €16.71 of the 48-month rental is 0.16 per cent of that. A kiosk with 300 card payments at the same ticket size reaches €2,040 — where the same rent is 0.82 per cent and therefore more than four times the girocard authorisation fee, which CCV gives as 0.18 per cent (checked on the CCV cost page on 22 September 2026). On a low card turnover, the model without fixed costs therefore wins regularly, even when its percentage looks high.

For a mobile device CCV additionally names around €5 a month for the optional SIM card. On €2,040 of card turnover that is another 0.25 percentage points — an item that appears in no advertising claim and costs the kiosk more than its entire authorisation fee.

Card terminal without a contract: is that possible?

Not without a contract. Anyone accepting cards always signs an acceptance agreement, even if it is clicked through online in five minutes. What does exist is the model with no minimum term and no base fee: buy the device once, pay only per transaction, stop whenever you like. SumUp is the best-known example. The readers cost €34 (Solo Lite), €79 (Solo) or €169 (Terminal), each plus VAT; each payment costs 1.39 per cent, there is no monthly minimum turnover, and SumUp states verbatim that you can “cancel at any time” (both SumUp pages retrieved on 1 October 2026). Merchants with more turnover can add the “Zahlungen Plus” subscription for €19 a month and then pay 0.79 per cent on domestic cards.

The Nexi purchase package for €99 belongs to the same family, because no base fee runs; the Nexi page does not, however, state a contract term. That is exactly what “without a contract” comes down to: not the word in the advertising copy, but the notice period in the terms.

This is the monthly sum when today’s published terms are applied to two typical businesses — a kiosk with 300 and a bakery with 1,500 card payments at an average ticket of €6.80:

Model (terms as per provider page)	Kiosk: €2,040 card turnover	Bakery: €10,200 card turnover
SumUp, device bought, 1.39 %	€28.36	€141.78
SumUp with Zahlungen Plus, €19 + 0.79 %	€35.12	€99.58
Nexi purchase package, €99 one-off, 1.19 %	€24.28	€121.38
Nexi rental, from €15 + from 1.19 %	€39.28	€136.38
CCV Base Next rental 48 months, €16.71 + €0.06 per payment + 0.18 % girocard	€38.38	€125.07

This is a model calculation with freely chosen businesses, not a measurement. Assumptions: all payments are made with girocard or a domestic debit card, one-off device costs are not included, and for Nexi’s rental the “from” values are used, although the actual tier depends on the agreed turnover. CCV rental and €0.06 per debit payment checked on 1 October 2026, the girocard fee of 0.18 per cent on 22 September 2026.

Two things stand out. For the kiosk, the model without a base fee wins, and renting is the most expensive thing you can do. For the bakery the picture flips: there the percentage decides, and the subscription with a €19 base fee becomes the cheapest route — the fixed amount barely registers on €10,200 of turnover. The threshold at which Zahlungen Plus pays off against SumUp’s standard rate is €3,167 of card turnover a month (€19 divided by 0.6 percentage points).

What does a card reader cost?

The device itself costs between just under 30 and around 450 euros net today; rented, it costs 13 to 25 euros a month. The device price is almost never the biggest item — over a year, the percentages on turnover usually cost several times as much.

Device (provider)	Net purchase price	Ongoing costs according to the provider	As at
PayPal Reader (Zettle)	from 29 € for eligible new customers, each further device 79 €	no monthly fee, 1.39 % per card-present payment	8 Oct 2026
SumUp Solo Lite / Solo / Terminal	34 € / 79 € / 169 €	no base fee, 1.39 % per payment	1 Oct 2026
Nexi SmartPOS A77, purchase package	99 € one-off (offer until 31 Oct 2026)	no base fee, 1.19 % merchant service charge	1 Oct 2026
CCV Base Next, purchase	449 €	9.00 € service per month plus per-payment fees	22 Sep 2026
CCV Base Next, rental	—	13.21 € (60 months) to 24.71 € (24 months) per month	22 Sep 2026

For perspective, a yearly sum using the bakery from above, with 10,200 euros of card turnover a month: at 1.39 per cent, transaction fees come to 1,701.36 euros a year. Whether the reader cost 29 or 169 euros on top shifts the total by less than ten per cent. The kiosk with 2,040 euros of card turnover looks different: 340.27 euros of fees a year, so a device price of 169 euros is already half of that — and 449 euros would be more than a whole year of fees.

Two questions belong before any device purchase. First: does the device accept girocard via the girocard scheme, or only the card schemes’ debit cards? girocard was not in the Zettle payment-method list I checked on 6 October 2026; for customers who want to pay with girocard that is not a side issue — the difference is explained in girocard or Debit Mastercard/Visa Debit. Second: does the entry price apply to me? PayPal expressly ties the 29 euros to eligible new customers; anyone who already has a device pays 79 euros.

What does PayPal’s virtual terminal cost?

For eTerminal payments, PayPal’s German fee page states 3.39 per cent plus 0.39 euros per payment — the most expensive card rate on the entire page (page last updated on 7 September 2026, retrieved by me on 8 October 2026). The page lists no monthly fee for the eTerminal.

A virtual terminal is not a device but an input screen in the browser: the merchant types in the card details the customer has given over the phone or by post. That is exactly what makes it expensive — and risky. Compared with the other routes PayPal prices on the same page:

Route (PayPal fee page, Germany)	Rate	50 € basket	150 € basket	400 € basket
eTerminal payment	3.39 % + 0.39 €	2.09 € (4.2 %)	5.48 € (3.7 %)	13.95 € (3.5 %)
Payment link, standard card	2.99 % + 0.39 €	1.89 € (3.8 %)	4.88 € (3.3 %)	12.35 € (3.1 %)
Point of Sale, manual card entry (“where the service is available”)	2.9 % + 0.35 €	1.80 € (3.6 %)	4.70 € (3.1 %)	11.95 € (3.0 %)
Point of Sale, card present	1.39 %	0.70 € (1.4 %)	2.09 € (1.4 %)	5.56 € (1.4 %)

Rounded values, my own calculation based on the fee page. The table shows two things. The fixed 0.39 euros makes small amounts disproportionately expensive: at 50 euros the eTerminal effectively lands above four per cent. And letting the customer enter the card details themselves, for example via a payment link, costs 0.4 percentage points less at PayPal than keying them in yourself.

Price is not the only reason to avoid keying in cards. With a keyed card there is no authentication by the cardholder; if they dispute the payment later, the merchant usually bears the loss. How chargebacks work and which deadlines apply is covered in Chargebacks on card and direct debit; why payment links with 3-D Secure are treated differently is in 3DS and SCA exemptions. The virtual terminal is a tool for exceptions — a phone order from a regular customer, a post-stay charge at a hotel — not a substitute for a card reader.

Card terminal comparison: what to look for in the fees?

A comparison that lines up only the monthly rate or only the merchant discount rate is not a comparison. These seven items belong on the same sheet before you sign:

Item	Typical form	The question for the provider
Device	Purchase price or monthly rent	What does it cost over the time I use it?
Service after purchase	Monthly flat fee or “none”	Does a fee carry on after the purchase?
Merchant discount rate	Differs by card type	Which rate applies to girocard, debit, credit, commercial cards?
Transaction fee	Cents per payment	Is there a fixed amount per transaction on top?
One-off costs	Set-up, stability surcharge, provision	What do I pay on day one?
Mobile data	SIM card on mobile devices	Is the data connection included in the price?
Term	0 to 60 months, automatic renewal	How long am I bound, and with what notice can I get out?

The first six rows make up the monthly price; the seventh decides how long you pay it. Which card types trigger which percentage is covered in detail in accepting credit cards: what does it cost.

What the rental actually buys

Not hardware, but the transfer of risk. On the rental model CCV advertises full service on failures and integrated advance replacement; that is the value received, and on the sums above it is currently priced fairly. Whoever saves by buying is saving on that undertaking, not on the device. The honest wording is therefore not “renting is more expensive” but: the rental contains a service contract that a buyer has to purchase separately or carry themselves.

The catch that costs more than the device

The terminal contract and the network operation contract are two layers, and buying touches only the first. The figures from the publicly retrievable contract documents:

• VR Payment, terms and conditions for terminal provision and network operation, clause 11.1: minimum term of 48 months from activation, automatic renewal by one year at a time, three months’ notice.
• REA Card, contractual partner terms as at 04/2025: 60 months initial term, renewal by twelve months at a time, three months’ notice. The documented purchase model runs over those same 60 months — buying shortens nothing here. Add two items worth knowing before signing: a €500 flat charge where installation is refused, and 50 per cent of the outstanding claim on extraordinary termination for late payment.
• CCV: rental contracts run 24, 36, 48 or 60 months depending on the model chosen, renew automatically and carry three months’ notice after expiry (as at 22 September 2026). The twelve-month variant that could formerly be concluded online no longer appears on the rental page — with it, the most flexible contract in the classic camp has disappeared.

Why four- and five-year commitments are permissible at all: § 309 no. 9 BGB, which caps terms in standard-form contracts at two years, does not apply to dealings with businesses under § 310 (1) BGB. As a merchant you therefore do not enjoy the consumer protection you know from a gym contract. Only general reasonableness under § 307 BGB is examined — a considerably weaker bar.

Tax treatment is simpler than it looks

Low-value assets may be written off in full in the year of acquisition under § 6 (2) EStG; the threshold is 800 euros net. The purchase prices named above, from €99 to €762, all fall below it. The purchase price is therefore not a write-down running over years but a fully deductible business expense in the year of acquisition. That is a general rule, not advice for an individual case — the treatment in your actual accounts is a matter for your tax adviser.

What to do now

1. Put the question differently. Not “rent or buy”, but: what does this device cost at this provider over the time I will actually use it — once each way?
2. Ask about the service flat fee on a purchase, in writing, with an amount or the words “does not apply”. It decides the comparison, not the device price. At CCV it is €7.00 to €9.00 a month; under Nexi’s purchase package it is nil.
3. Multiply the rental rate by the term before choosing the lowest monthly rate. At CCV the longest term is not the lowest total.
4. Ask for both terms separately: that of the terminal and that of the acceptance or network operation contract. Only the second truly binds you — and where a provider page names no term at all, that is the first question to ask.
5. Settle the replacement and certification question: who replaces a failed device, within what deadline, and who pays when the device approval expires?
6. Convert fixed costs into a percentage of your own card turnover and look at them together with the merchant discount rate. Only that sum is the price — work it through with the building blocks of card payment fees.
7. On a small card turnover, include the model without a base fee in the sum — and with “without a contract”, look for the notice period in the terms, not in the advertising copy.
8. Note the notice periods before signing, not after. How to get out of a running contract is set out in terminating a payment network operator contract.