A terminal rental fee is a monthly or periodic charge that a merchant pays to use a card payment terminal owned by its acquirer, processor or an independent sales organisation. It usually covers the device, software updates, encryption key management and replacement if the terminal fails, and sometimes the connection to the processor. Rental is common for countertop, portable and integrated point-of-sale terminals in shops, restaurants and hotels.
Renting avoids a large upfront cost and keeps devices current with security standards, but over a long contract the total paid can far exceed the price of buying a terminal outright. Rental agreements may run for several years, carry early termination charges and be separate from the merchant processing agreement, a source of complaints from small businesses. Many newer providers sell low-cost mobile point-of-sale readers instead. Merchants comparing offers usually add rental to other fixed charges, such as a monthly minimum fee, when judging the true cost of card acceptance.