Tap to Pay on Your Phone (SoftPOS): Do You Still Need a Card Machine in 2026?

You can now take a contactless card payment on a normal Android phone, tapping the customer's card or phone straight onto yours, with no separate reader at all. It is called SoftPOS (or "Tap to Pay"), and it is a genuinely useful option. But "you can" is not "you should for everything" — for some businesses it is perfect, for others a dedicated card terminal still wins. Here is how to tell which you are. Last updated: September 2026. What SoftPOS actually is SoftPOS uses the NFC chip already in a modern Android phone, plus an app from your payment provider, to read a contactless card or phone. No dongle, no terminal, no upfront hardware cost. You download the app, sign up, and take a tap. That is the whole appeal: zero kit. Where SoftPOS wins Occasional or low-volume takings — a tradesperson taking the odd payment, a stallholder, a delivery driver, a pop-up. No point buying a terminal for a handful of taps a week. No upfront cost — you already own the phone, so you are trading in minutes. One thing to carry — the phone you have anyway. Where a card terminal still earns its place Chip & PIN for higher-value sales — SoftPOS is contactless only, so it is capped at the contactless limit and cannot take a chip-and-PIN payment. For bigger transactions, or where you want PIN verification, you need a terminal like the D200 Bluetooth smart card and PIN pad terminal or the standalone S90 with contactless. Receipts — a terminal pairs with a pocket printer; a phone app usually cannot hand a paper receipt across the counter. A busy counter — tying up your phone (and its battery, and its screen) every time someone pays is fine for one tap an hour, painful in a lunch rush. Reliability and fees — dedicated terminals are built for the job, and per-transaction costs are often lower at volume than app-based SoftPOS. The honest verdict Occasional, low-value, no receipts needed → SoftPOS on the phone is the smart, cheap choice. A real shop, stall or round doing steady volume, higher-value sales, or receipts → a dedicated card terminal (plus a pocket printer) pays for itself in speed, reliability and lower fees. Many businesses end up with both: SoftPOS as a backup or for the odd off-counter sale, and a proper terminal as the workhorse. We cover terminal choices in chip & PIN vs tap to pay card terminals and the best card machine for a small business. Tell us how you take payments and we will point you to the right kit at trade pricing. Talk to the team.