How to Use Stripe for Payments in the UK

UK business owners can set up a handy Stripe¹ merchant account to access a broad selection of ways to accept payments from customers, as well as a suite of other support such as convenient business data and insights.

If you’re looking for ways to take on and offline payments from customers, you might be wondering how to use Stripe for payments in the UK. This guide has you covered. We’ll walk through the steps to set up a Stripe account and a full review of how to use Stripe to accept payments.

We'll also touch the benefits of connecting Stripe with Wise Business when receiving payments with foreign currencies.

💡Learn more about Wise Business

What is Stripe?

Stripe is a popular payment processing service, which is available in the UK and around 45 countries globally. Stripe launched in 2009 and has a full range of payment processing solutions and merchant services to let businesses receive payments from customers, in person, through apps, and online.

Stripe services are split out by business stage, which means they offer tools that suit all company types and sizes, from start-up to enterprise. New businesses, and people with limited technical coding knowledge may appreciate Stripe’s low and no code payment options, and online payment tools using a pre-built payment form. More established businesses looking for a tailor made solution can choose customisable payment UIs (User Interfaces). If your business trades both on and offline, you can also get stripe terminals for in person payments.

Is Stripe safe?

Security should be front of mind when picking a payment processor for your business. It’s helpful to know that Stripe is a level 1 Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards (PCI DSS) provider², making it safe and reliable. In fact, Stripe handles 250 million or more API requests a day, and has a historical uptime of over 99.999%.

Stripe reviews

You’ll also want to check out online reviews of different payment options to see what current customers say about them. Stripe scores 2.9 stars out of 5 on Trustpilot³, which aggregates live reviews from customers.

While that’s not a great score, it’s interesting to note that 48% of the respondents gave Stripe 5 stars, while 41% only posted a 1 star review. Trustpilot data is dynamic and continually updated - so do check out the latest online before you sign up.

Stripe merchant account

Stripe's merchant account lets you accept customer payments in person, online and through shareable links. You’ll get paid to your Stripe account and can then automatically or manually withdraw the funds to your business bank account once they’ve cleared. We’ll look at how that works, and how long it takes to get paid with Stripe, a bit later.

If you’re exploring the options from Stripe you may be wondering about the difference between a Stripe merchant account and Stripe merchant services. There’s a handy explainer on the Stripe website to clear up the confusion⁴.

In short, a merchant account is the account you’ll hold with a payment processor, to receive and hold your business payments before you payout to your business bank account.

Merchant services is an umbrella term which covers the process of moving money in and out of merchant accounts, but which can also include other service options as well.

How to use Stripe to accept payments?

To get paid using a debit or credit card, you’ll need a couple of things:

• A payment processor
• A payment gateway

A payment processor handles the full customer payment, communicating with the card issuer, card network and the merchant, to make sure the payment can be cleared. A payment gateway handles the secure communication which confirms if a payment has been approved or declined, working with a payment processor to manage the transaction.

Some marketplace websites and platforms have processing services built in, which means you’ll only need to connect your business bank account to get paid. Stripe offers both standalone payment gateway services, and a full end to end payment processor service as well⁵.

Accept payments online

Depending on your business type and your personal preferences, there are a few different ways to accept online payments with Stripe. The good news is that you can pick the option that suits your business stage and your own technical knowledge, including some which don’t need any coding at all. Your options include⁶:

• Online payments using a pre built payment form
• Customizable payment UIs
• No code payment links

Accept payments in person

You can also accept in person payments with Stripe. That’s handy for any business that operates both on and off line as you can seamlessly unify your payments and make it easier for customers to pay you.

Stripe has a selection of payment terminal options for in person payments. You can get a stand alone payment terminal or you can use your smartphone to allow you to take customer card payments⁷. Both options have their own pros and cons so you’ll be able to explore which works best for your business based on your transaction types and volume.

How long do Stripe payments take?

When you use Stripe to get paid by a customer, your money will initially be deposited into your Stripe merchant account. From here you’ll need to withdraw it to your business account before you can use it.

Once you’ve set up your account, Stripe schedules your first payout for 7–14 days after you successfully receive your first payment⁸. In some cases, the first payout might take longer depending on the industry risk level.

Once you’re getting regular payments to your Stripe account you can change the payout schedule to suit your needs. Some customers are also able to get instant payouts to a debit card. This service has a fee and is not available to all business types.

Set-up a Stripe account

You can set up a Stripe UK account for your business in a few steps. The exact steps may vary slightly if you’re accessing Stripe through a platform, extension or plug in, but the process is usually pretty similar. Here’s what you’ll need to do⁹:

1. Select the Stripe sign up button
2. Follow the onscreen prompts to enter your business details
3. Add your business description and customer support information
4. Enter your bank information to receive Stripe payouts
5. Enable 2-factor authentication for security
6. You’ll be prompted to enter your email and select a secure password
7. Check out your email for a confirmation message which allows you to complete your Stripe account set up

The business information you need to enter will depend on the business entity type you have. You’ll be guided through the process step by step using onscreen instructions, and there are lots of helpful Stripe UK resources and videos which can also offer support if you need it.

Receive Stripe payments with Wise Business account

If you want to connect with customers based overseas, you can make it easy for them to pay - and make sure you don’t lose out on high fees - with Wise Business.

Open a Wise Business account and connect it to Stripe to get paid with local bank details in 9 currencies. That means you can allow customers to pay in the currency that suits them, at home or abroad. Once you have a balance in your Stripe merchant account you can withdraw to Wise in the currency of your choice, and hold, send, spend or exchange it easily.

Wise accounts let you hold and exchange 40+ currencies, and convert between them with the mid-market rate and low and transparent fees from 0.43%¹⁰. You’ll also be able to order a Wise Business debit card, or expense cards for your team, and get handy features like cloud accounting integrations, batch payments and a powerful API to automate workflow.

Get started withWise Business 🚀

With Stripe you can grow your UK business by making it easier for customers to pay you with a debit or credit card, on or offline. Get yourself a Wise Business as well, and link to your Stripe merchant account to receive payments in a selection of foreign currencies - to give your business easy ways to expand across borders.

Sources used in this article:

Sources last checked November 16, 2023