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Merchant Payments Reliability Index

Are your card payments reliable — and are you paying too much?

SupplyIndex is building an independent benchmark of UK merchant payment providers, combining public incident monitoring, settlement and contract transparency, and verified card-processing statements from practices.

No public shaming. No guesswork. The index is based on source-backed public data and verified merchant-submitted statements.

Benchmark status

Data collection opening

Provider coverage

14 UK providers

Public data input

Status sources

Practice input

Statements coming soon

Built for UK aesthetics, dental and small healthcare practices that need card payments to work, settle predictably and make commercial sense.

Why this matters

Card payments touch almost every practice transaction

Card processing is one of the few costs that touches almost every transaction in a practice. When payments fail, settlements are delayed, fees are opaque, or support is slow, the cost is not just the processing rate — it is lost revenue, admin time and cashflow risk.

Payment reliability

Can you keep taking payments when the system is under pressure?

Settlement confidence

Are payouts consistent, predictable and clearly explained?

True effective cost

What do practices actually pay after terminal rental, authorisation fees, PCI fees, chargeback fees and settlement charges?

Measurement

What the index will measure

The index will combine public provider signals with evidence submitted privately by practices. Scores will only be published where there is enough evidence to support them.

Payment incident history

Public data

What it measures

Frequency, duration and type of incidents affecting payment acceptance.

Example source

Official provider status pages and incident history.

Settlement and payout issues

Both

What it measures

Payout delays, funding issues, transfer notices and settlement-related disruption.

Example source

Provider status components, incident notices and merchant evidence.

Support availability

Both

What it measures

Published support coverage, support incident notices and submitted support evidence.

Example source

Status-page support components, ticket records and clinic submissions.

Contract flexibility

Merchant submitted

What it measures

Contract term, exit fees, terminal rental obligations and renewal arrangements.

Example source

Merchant contracts and submitted agreement evidence.

Fee transparency

Both

What it measures

How clearly fees are disclosed beyond the headline processing percentage.

Example source

Merchant statements, schedules of fees and provider pricing pages.

Verified clinic statement benchmarks

Merchant submitted

What it measures

Real effective card-processing costs paid by comparable clinics.

Example source

Uploaded merchant statements from verified clinics.

Provider coverage

Initial UK provider table

This is not a ranking. The first version maps coverage, source availability and statement benchmarking status before any provider grades are published.

ProviderPublic status page foundPayment status monitoredSettlement/payout status monitoredMerchant statement benchmarkingNotes
Worldpay / Access WorldpayYesYesYesComing soonComponent-level status source identified for card payments, 3DS, tokens, payouts and hosted payment pages.
DojoYesYesYesComing soonIncident history source identified for transfers, in-person payments, transaction reporting and support notices.
StripeYesYesPartialComing soonGlobal public status and historical system performance source identified.
SumUpYesYesPartialComing soonEurope status source identified for POS, payments, reports and related services.
SquareYesYesYesComing soonUK status source identified for payment acceptance, transfers, virtual terminal, hardware and support.
Zettle / PayPalTo verifyTo verifyTo verifyComing soonProvider coverage planned. UK-relevant payment and payout source mapping to verify before scoring.
AdyenYesPartialPartialComing soonIncident-history source identified. Component mapping to payment acceptance and payout categories to verify.
ElavonYesYesYesComing soonEU status source identified for authorisation, point-of-sale devices, gateways and funding components.
Global PaymentsTo verifyTo verifyTo verifyComing soonProvider coverage planned. Public source mapping and UK merchant statement benchmarking are not yet live.
WorldlineYesPartialPartialComing soonOnline payments platform status source identified. UK clinic-relevant component mapping to verify.
Barclaycard PaymentsTo verifyTo verifyTo verifyComing soonProvider coverage planned. Public status source and settlement components to verify before scoring.
Lloyds CardnetTo verifyTo verifyTo verifyComing soonProvider coverage planned. Public status source and merchant-statement benchmarks coming soon.
takepaymentsTo verifyTo verifyTo verifyComing soonProvider coverage planned. Public status source and statement benchmarking to verify.
Tyl by NatWestTo verifyTo verifyTo verifyComing soonProvider coverage planned. Public status source and settlement visibility to verify.

Labels such as “Source identified”, “To verify” and “Coming soon” are deliberately cautious. SupplyIndex will not publish grades until there is enough evidence.

Public data sources

Official and public status sources are the first input

The first version monitors official or public provider status sources where they are available, then combines that with practice-submitted merchant evidence.

Public status pages do not capture every local terminal, mobile network, POS or card-issuer problem. For that reason, SupplyIndex does not treat status-page data as the whole truth. It is one input in a broader reliability and transparency benchmark.

Merchant statement benchmarking

The real benchmark comes from merchant statements

Most practices do not know their true effective processing rate. A headline percentage rarely includes every cost. SupplyIndex will benchmark real card-processing statements across comparable practices so owners can see whether their provider is competitive.

Practice identity is not shown publicly. Benchmarks are anonymised and aggregated.

Statement fields we want

Monthly card turnover
Number of transactions
Blended processing rate
Terminal rental
PCI/non-compliance fees
Authorisation fees
Chargeback fees
Premium settlement fees
Monthly minimums
Contract term
Exit fees
Settlement schedule
Methodology

Three inputs, published cautiously

The index is designed to help practice owners compare providers without reducing complex payment problems to a single unsupported score.

A

Public incident monitoring

  • Official provider status pages
  • Incident title
  • Affected component
  • Start and resolution times
  • Payment, settlement or support category
  • Severity where available
B

Verified merchant submissions

  • Statements uploaded by clinics
  • Contract and fee evidence
  • Settlement and payout experience
  • Support or ticket evidence where submitted
C

Transparency scoring

  • Public status page availability
  • Component-level detail
  • Incident history
  • Ability to subscribe to updates
  • Clear pricing and contract disclosure

Scores will only be published where there is enough evidence to support them.

Boundaries

What this is not

The index is built to be commercially useful, but it should not be mistaken for a guarantee, outage service or paid directory.

A guarantee that a provider will never fail

A live outage alerting service

A claim that every failed transaction is caused by the merchant provider

A ranking based only on online reviews

A paid-for directory

It is a structured benchmark designed to help practices ask better questions, negotiate better terms and avoid avoidable payment risk.

FAQ

Merchant Payments Reliability Index FAQs

Is this an uptime index?

Not exactly. Uptime is one input, but card-payment failure can involve terminals, mobile networks, POS systems, gateways, acquirers, card schemes and issuing banks. The index focuses on practical merchant payment reliability.

Will you rank providers?

Yes, but only when there is sufficient source-backed and merchant-submitted evidence. The first version explains the methodology and starts collecting data.

Can clinics submit statements privately?

Yes. The intention is to benchmark anonymised card-processing costs and contract terms without exposing individual clinic identities.

Which providers will be included?

The initial UK list includes Worldpay, Dojo, Stripe, SumUp, Square, Zettle/PayPal, Adyen, Elavon, Global Payments, Worldline, Barclaycard, Lloyds Cardnet, takepayments and Tyl by NatWest.

Why does this belong on SupplyIndex?

SupplyIndex exists to close pricing and supplier information gaps for clinics. Merchant processing is another recurring supplier cost where small clinics often lack negotiating power and clear benchmarks.

Help build the benchmark

Help build the benchmark

If your practice takes card payments, your merchant statement can help build a fairer benchmark for the sector — and show whether you are overpaying.