A customer calls to book, enquire, or order remotely — and you have no way to take their money. Pay by Link fixes that. Here is what it costs, who offers it, and why it matters.
A customer rings your shop on a Tuesday afternoon. They want to reserve a camera lens before they drive across London to collect it. They are ready to pay. You are ready to sell. And then comes the awkward silence: "Can I take your card details over the phone?"
You both know that is not ideal. They are uncomfortable reading their card number aloud. You are uncomfortable writing it down. And depending on how you process it, you may be falling foul of PCI DSS guidance on manual card-not-present transactions. The sale hangs in the air, half-finished.
This scenario plays out thousands of times a day across UK small businesses. Photographers chasing deposits. Retailers holding stock for loyal customers. Tradespeople invoicing for completed jobs. Consultants billing for retainers. The moment between "yes, I want to pay" and money actually moving is still, for many merchants, far harder than it should be.
Pay by Link is the fix. And for Teya merchants, it is included free with every account.
Pay by Link is exactly what it sounds like. You generate a unique payment URL, share it with your customer, and they click it to complete a secure card payment from whatever device they are holding. No card reader required. No terminal in front of them. No login or app needed on their end.
The link opens a hosted payment page, typically branded or at minimum professionally presented, where the customer enters their card details in a secure environment. Modern implementations accept Apple Pay and Google Pay too, which means the checkout can be a single tap for anyone on a recent iPhone or Android device.
For the merchant, the entire flow takes about thirty seconds to set up. For the customer, paying takes about the same.
It sounds simple because it is. But the business impact is not trivial.
According to research by Barclaycard, 22% of UK adults have abandoned a purchase because the checkout process was too inconvenient. That figure applies to e-commerce, but the same friction exists in remote selling: the moment between intent and completion is where revenue leaks.
For service businesses, the deposit problem is particularly acute. A wedding photographer who books twelve weddings a year at an average of £2,500 each is managing £30,000 in contracted revenue, often across a mix of verbal agreements, BACS transfers, and awkward phone conversations. A missed or delayed deposit is not just cash flow; it is the risk that a client books someone else before the money has moved.
Pay by Link closes that gap immediately. Send the link the moment the customer says yes. They pay within minutes. The booking is confirmed. The money is moving.
Teya includes Pay by Link at no additional charge for every merchant on their platform. There is no separate product to subscribe to, no monthly bolt-on, and no elevated transaction rate for remote payments.
Here is what the feature actually does:
Multiple generation points. You can create a payment link from your Teya card terminal, from the Teya App on your smartphone, or from the Teya Portal on any web browser. This matters because it means whichever device is closest to you when the customer calls, you can generate the link from there.
Share via any channel. Once generated, the link is yours to share however makes sense for that customer. WhatsApp is the most common channel for UK small businesses communicating with regular customers. SMS works for one-off buyers. Email suits more formal transactions. Copy the link and paste it wherever the conversation is already happening.
Custom expiry dates. You set when the link expires. Holding stock for a customer who is collecting tomorrow? Set a 24-hour expiry. Sending a deposit request to a client who is travelling and may not check messages until the weekend? Give them a week. This prevents stale links from being paid after circumstances have changed.
Apple Pay and Google Pay accepted. The payment page supports digital wallets, which means for a significant proportion of your customers, especially those on mobile, the checkout is a biometric confirmation rather than a card entry. Faster, more secure, and notably lower friction.
Same standard transaction rate. Teya does not apply a premium rate for card-not-present transactions generated via Pay by Link. You pay the same rate you pay on in-person sales. This is, as you will see below, not universal among providers.
Let us be precise here, because this is The Honest Comparison and the details matter.
SumUp does offer remote payment functionality, but it operates through a product called SumUp Invoices, which generates payment links as part of a separate invoicing flow. The feature is available, but SumUp applies a different, higher transaction rate for these transactions compared to in-person card payments. As of 2024 pricing, in-person transactions on SumUp's standard plan sit at 1.69%, while remote payment transactions are charged at 2.5%. On a £500 invoice, that difference costs you £4.05 more per transaction. Over a year of modest remote selling, that compounds meaningfully.
Fair credit to SumUp: the feature exists and works. But it is not free in the true sense; the cost is baked into the rate differential.
Square's approach to remote payments runs through its online checkout infrastructure. To send a payment link, you are effectively creating a simplified online store item or using the Square Invoices product. Square Invoices on the free plan charges 3.3% plus 30p per transaction for remote payments in the UK, compared to 1.75% for in-person transactions. That is a substantial difference.
Square's ecosystem is genuinely capable, and if you are already running a Square Online presence, the integration makes sense. But for a bricks-and-mortar merchant who simply wants to send a payment link to a customer who just rang, the setup overhead and the pricing differential are real considerations.
Zettle does not offer a Pay by Link feature in the same direct sense. Zettle is primarily a point-of-sale product built for in-person retail and hospitality. Remote payment capability exists for Zettle merchants only if they also use PayPal's separate invoicing tools, which introduces a different interface, a different rate structure, and a less seamless experience. For a merchant who wants a single platform that handles both in-person and remote payments coherently, Zettle has a meaningful gap here.
Worldpay does offer Pay by Link, but it sits within their more enterprise-facing product suite. For SME merchants on standard Worldpay contracts, accessing Pay by Link typically requires a separate product arrangement and, depending on the contract, may carry its own pricing. Worldpay's strength is in large-volume merchants and complex integrations. For a ten-person independent retailer who wants to send a WhatsApp payment link in thirty seconds, the Worldpay route involves more friction than the problem it is solving.
Take an independent camera and photography equipment retailer in the Midlands. They stock used and new equipment, with average transaction values around £400. A regular customer rings to reserve a Fujifilm X100VI body, priced at £1,299, that has just come into stock as a trade-in.
The shop wants a £300 deposit to hold it for 48 hours.
Using Teya Pay by Link: The staff member opens the Teya App, creates a £300 payment link, sets a 48-hour expiry, and sends it via WhatsApp. The customer taps it on their iPhone, pays with Face ID via Apple Pay, and the shop receives confirmation within seconds. The deposit is secured. The customer is confident. The link expires harmlessly if the customer changes their mind before paying.
Transaction cost at a standard Teya rate: let us use a representative 1.69% as a reference point, approximately £5.07.
Using SumUp remote payment (at 2.5%): The same transaction costs approximately £7.50. A difference of £2.43 on one transaction.
Using Square Invoices (at 3.3% plus 30p): The same transaction costs approximately £9.90 plus 30p, so £10.20. A difference of £5.13 on one transaction.
Across a year, if that shop processes 200 deposit or remote payment transactions averaging £300, the difference between Teya and Square's remote rate is over £1,000 in transaction fees. That is a meaningful number for an independent retailer operating on thin margins.
| Provider | Pay by Link Available | Rate vs In-Person | Generation Method | WhatsApp Ready |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Teya | Yes, free | Same rate | Terminal, App, or Portal | Yes |
| SumUp | Yes, via Invoices | Higher (approx. 2.5%) | App or web | Yes |
| Square | Yes, via Invoices | Higher (3.3% + 30p) | Web or app | Yes |
| Zettle | Not directly | N/A | Via PayPal invoicing | Indirect |
| Worldpay (SME) | Depends on contract | Variable | Separate product | Variable |
Pay by Link is not a luxury feature. It is basic commercial plumbing for any business that takes orders, bookings, or deposits outside of a physical checkout moment. The UK has approximately 5.5 million small and medium-sized enterprises, and a significant proportion of them still handle remote payment requests awkwardly, expensively, or not at all.
The feature works best for:
The practical steps are straightforward. If you are a Teya merchant, you already have this. Open the app, generate a link, share it. If you are evaluating providers and remote payments are a meaningful part of how you do business, factor the per-transaction rate into your comparison, not just the in-person rate on the card reader brochure.
Pay by Link is one of those features where the honest verdict is simply: some providers bundle it cleanly into your existing account at your existing rate, and others treat it as a separate revenue line.
Teya does the former. SumUp and Square offer the feature, and both are credible platforms in their own right, but both apply a higher rate for remote transactions than for in-person ones. Zettle leaves a genuine gap. Worldpay's SME offering depends heavily on your specific contract terms.
If you take more than a handful of remote payments per month, the rate differential is not hypothetical. It is a number you can calculate, and it compounds across every transaction you process outside a physical terminal.
The phone call that ends with a payment link sent is not just more convenient. It is a more professional experience for your customer, a more secure process for your business, and, depending on who you bank with for payments, a meaningfully cheaper one too.
Sources
Disclaimer
The views and information shared in this post are for educational and informational purposes only and do not constitute financial, legal, or professional advice. While every effort is made to ensure accuracy, Klipy UK Limited accepts no liability for decisions made based on this content. Payment processing rates, regulations, and product features referenced are subject to change. Klipy UK is an authorised seller of Teya payment solutions. Where third-party sources are cited, links are provided for reference; Klipy UK does not endorse or guarantee the accuracy of external content. For personalised guidance on your business payment needs, please contact us directly at editor@klipy.uk.
Found this helpful? Share with your network:
This content is published by Klipy UK, a Teya-authorised reseller of payment solutions. The views expressed are for informational purposes only and do not constitute financial advice. All content is the intellectual property of Klipy UK. Reproduction without permission is prohibited.
See exactly how much you could save. Upload your statement or enter your monthly turnover-instant results, no obligation.
Try Calculator