Editorial method
How Kartapay compares card-payment and finance providers.
Kartapay only compares UK-licensed providers (FCA-registered or recognised UK card scheme) and earns a referral fee from the provider, never the SME owner. We use public fee schedules, Companies House records, FCA Financial Services Register entries, and independent test enquiries through our sister sites (MerchantHQ, BestBusinessLoans, FundBiz, MarketInvoice). Polish and Romanian content goes through a 3-pass workflow (translate, adversarial review, back-translation diff) on Claude Sonnet 4.6, with a native-speaker reviewer cleaning up anything all three passes flag. Polish-domestic and Romanian-domestic providers (polcard.pl, NETOPIA, mypos.com/ro-ro) are excluded because they cannot legally settle into a UK bank account.
Comparison sites are only useful if you trust the comparison. Here is exactly what we do, where the data comes from, what we do not do, and how we earn money.
1. We are independent
Kartapay is operated by Best Business Loans Ltd (UK Companies House 16833937), an independent UK introducer business. We are not owned, part-owned, joint-ventured, or commercially controlled by any payment acquirer, payment facilitator, or finance lender. No provider has paid for placement in our rankings or coverage.
2. Where the data comes from
- Provider documentation , public fee schedules, contract templates, T&Cs, FAQs.
- Public APIs , Companies House (UK), FCA Financial Services Register, HMRC trading registers, IndexNow.
- Independent verification , we cross-check fee claims by submitting test enquiries via Kartapay and via our sister sites (MerchantHQ, BestBusinessLoans, FundBiz, MarketInvoice). When a provider's published fee differs from the quote we receive, we publish the discrepancy.
- Direct disclosure from providers , when a provider corrects something on our pages, we update with a dated note. We don't quietly edit.
3. Who does the editorial
The lead author for English and the brief writer for Polish + Romanian is Oliver Mackman (Director, Best Business Loans Ltd, public officer record at Companies House). Polish and Romanian translations follow a 3-pass workflow (translate, adversarial review, back-translation diff) using Claude Sonnet 4.6, with a native speaker reviewer cleaning up anything all three passes flag. Reviewed pages carry a "Native-reviewed" badge.
4. What we don't do
- We don't charge you. The service is free for the SME owner. We are paid an introducer fee by the provider you choose, disclosed before you submit.
- We don't sell your details to a panel. Each enquiry goes to one provider, picked for fit. Not 10 providers.
- We don't compare Polish-domestic or Romanian-domestic providers (polcard.pl, NETOPIA, Banca Transilvania POS, mypos.com/ro-ro). They cannot legally settle into a UK bank account. We only cover UK-licensed providers.
- We don't fabricate reviews or quotes. Every quoted figure has a source. If we cannot verify a figure, we say "not disclosed".
- We don't paywall translations. Polish and Romanian pages contain the same depth as the English equivalents.
5. How we earn money
When a UK SME enquires via the Kartapay lead form and we introduce them to a UK-licensed provider that activates the account or funds the loan, the provider pays Kartapay an introducer fee. The fee varies by product type (card terminal vs business loan) and provider. It does not change the rate or contract offered to you , providers ring-fence introducer budget separately from merchant-facing pricing.
If you compare us with sites that bury this disclosure on page 14 of their T&Cs, you should be suspicious. Transparent commission disclosure is what an honest introducer does, regardless of whether the introducer is FCA-authorised. Kartapay itself is not FCA-authorised , we are an introducer to UK FCA-authorised lenders. The lenders you can verify on the FCA Financial Services Register.
6. Corrections
If you spot a factual error, email [email protected]. We respond within 5 working days. Material corrections are logged on the page with a dated "Last reviewed" line.
7. Sister sites in the fleet
Best Business Loans Ltd also operates the following English-language editorial sites in the same family:
- MerchantHQ , English UK card-payment comparison + named account-team service.
- BestBusinessLoans , English UK business loans editorial.
- FundBiz , English UK specialty finance comparison.
- MarketInvoice , English UK invoice finance comparison.
Each site has its own audience and editorial focus. Kartapay covers payments + finance in Polish and Romanian. The Companies House parent record is the same on all five.