Trust Payments Review

Trust Payments is a UK payments group that both runs a payment gateway and acquires card payments itself. It grew out of Secure Trading, an online card-payments firm that was operating by 1998. In May 2019 an investor group coordinated by CORDET Capital Partners bought the Secure Trading companies and moved them under a new holding company, and the brand became Trust Payments in 2020. Its acquiring licence sits with Trust Payments (Malta) Limited, which the Malta Financial Services Authority has authorised since June 2012, including for acquiring card transactions, and which the company says is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard. In the UK, TrustUK Payments Ltd is an FCA-authorised payment institution (firm reference 932557). It sells online payments, card terminals, Tap to Pay on Android and iPhone, card payouts, retail software through its Trust Retail arm, and revenue-based financing through YouLend. It openly courts higher-risk sectors such as gaming, crypto, forex and medical cannabis. As of October 2026 it publishes no processing rates or monthly fees: every account is priced in a quote, and a merchant can be asked for a rolling or fixed reserve, sized by risk, with funds held for at least 120 days from when they are added. Trustpilot reviews are mostly positive, with a minority of one-star reviews about reversed payments, chargeback losses and slow email support.

What Trust Payments is

Trust Payments is a payments group with its registered head office in Bromley, Greater London, plus offices in Malta and elsewhere. It sells online card acceptance, card terminals, phone-based Tap to Pay, card payouts and retail software. Unlike a gateway that relies on a separate acquirer, it also acquires the payments itself. Its homepage says it is trusted by more than 20,000 customers, although its own Our Story page gives both 20,000+ and 14,000+ customers, so treat that figure as approximate.

Where it came from and who owns it

The business started as Secure Trading, which was taking online card payments by 1998 and later added a Malta-licensed acquirer that traded as acquiring.com. In May 2019 CORDET Capital Partners, an FCA-regulated investment manager, advised and coordinated a group of investors that bought Secure Trading Limited and Secure Trading Inc., with the transfer of the Maltese company, Secure Trading Financial Services Ltd, subject to regulatory approval. The announcement put the group under a new holding company branded Tru//ST Payments, and the companies took the Trust Payments name in 2020: Companies House shows Securetrading Ltd renamed in November 2020, and the Malta company says it was rebranded that year. CORDET coordinated the investors; it is not named as the owner, and we could not identify who owns the group today. Companies House lists Trust Payments Holdings Ltd as the controlling shareholder of Trust Payments Ltd, with 75% or more of the shares. The group bought WonderLane, a UK retail technology firm, in a deal announced on 31 January 2022, and now sells retail software under the Trust Retail name. As of October 2026 the chief executive is Laurence Booth, according to the company's leadership page.

Licences: why it counts as an acquirer

Trust Payments (Malta) Limited has been authorised by the Malta Financial Services Authority since June 2012, according to the MFSA register. Its authorisation covers acquiring of payment transactions, and the company says it is a principal member of Visa and Mastercard and passports its licence across the EU and EEA. For the UK after Brexit, TrustUK Payments Ltd became an FCA-authorised payment institution on 15 March 2021, with firm reference 932557, according to the FCA register. Because the group holds the scheme memberships and the acquiring licence, a merchant can get the merchant account, gateway and terminals from Trust Payments with no separate bank or acquirer involved. We have therefore classed it as an acquiring platform rather than a gateway reseller.

What it costs

As of October 2026 Trust Payments publishes no processing rates, monthly fees, terminal rental prices or setup fees. Rates are quoted per account after an application, and its pages say they depend on your business. The only published price is for Tap to Pay, which has no set-up costs or monthly fees; its per-transaction rate is not listed. Comparison websites print estimated rate ranges for Trust Payments, but none of them appear on a Trust Payments page, so we have not repeated them here.

The help centre shows how a bill is built. Gross-settled accounts receive a monthly acquiring invoice, and the fees on it fall into per-transaction service charges and other fees and charges: authorisation fees, wire fees, PCI fees, card scheme fees, cross-border fees and domestic or intra-regional fees. Gateway services are billed on a separate monthly statement. When you get a quote, ask for every one of these lines, plus terminal rental and dynamic currency conversion terms, before you compare it with another provider.

Chargebacks and reserves

Each chargeback carries the card scheme's case-filing fee, which Trust Payments passes on and debits the day the dispute arrives, plus Trust Payments' own case administration fee. Mastercard pre-arbitration fees, arbitration and technical violation fees, Visa fees on card-not-present fraud disputes and compliance case fees can follow. None of these amounts is published; the help centre says the case-filing fee depends on the pricing schedule in the merchant contract.

During onboarding Trust Payments decides whether to hold a reserve against future chargebacks and refunds. A rolling reserve sets aside part of each settlement. A fixed reserve is a lump sum you pay up front and top up when needed. The help centre says the size depends on your sector, how goods are delivered and your agreement, and that the money is released once the card schemes' chargeback liability period ends: at least 120 days from when the funds were added, or longer if your agreement says so. A higher-risk merchant should budget for some of its cash being tied up for at least four months.

How payments and payouts work

Online, the TRU Connect gateway offers hosted payment pages or a direct API, shopping-cart plugins, 3-D Secure handling, fraud screening, pay by link, IVR payments, a virtual terminal and European local payment methods. In person, Trust Payments supplies Ingenico and Castles terminals, unattended terminals and its Tap to Pay app for Android and iPhone. Its terminal pages advertise next-day settlement. For online payments, the help centre says transactions go to the acquirer in a daily settlement batch, and how long the money then takes to reach the merchant's account depends on the banks. The company says it supports settlement in 14 currencies. Separately, its Payouts product pushes money to customers' cards through Visa Direct and Mastercard Send, which Trust Payments says transfers funds within 30 minutes.

Contracts and terms

Trust Payments does not publish its merchant agreement, minimum term, notice period or early termination fee. Its point of sale page mentions only "flexible contracts". Because these terms decide what leaving will cost you, ask for them in writing, together with the terminal rental terms and the reserve terms, before you sign. Complaints go first to customer support. If the final written response does not settle it, eligible businesses can take it to the Financial Ombudsman Service within six months.

High-risk sectors

Trust Payments openly markets to sectors that many UK processors avoid. It has dedicated pages for gaming, crypto, forex, debt collection, call centres, insurance and medical cannabis. Its gaming team says it has 15 years' experience in the sector and works with EU-incorporated operators, and in July 2026 it put card terminals into Les Ambassadeurs, a members' casino in Mayfair. For these merchants the trade-off is closer underwriting, reserve requirements and settlement terms set by risk profile.

Reputation and complaints

As of October 2026 Trust Payments' Trustpilot profile shows 457 reviews and an Excellent rating. 81% of the reviews are five-star and 13% are one-star, with few in between. The profile has been claimed since May 2022, and the company has replied to 90% of negative reviews. Recent positive reviews praise quick phone support and account managers. The negative ones describe chargebacks and reversed payments costing merchants money, slow email support for developers, and contract disputes. We found no lawsuits or regulatory enforcement actions naming Trust Payments or its regulated subsidiaries.

Who it suits

Trust Payments fits established businesses that sell across channels or across borders and want one company to provide the merchant account, the gateway and the terminals. It also fits merchants in gaming, crypto, forex, travel or medical cannabis that need an acquirer willing to underwrite them. It suits a small business less well: that merchant will get more from a provider with a published flat rate, self-serve sign-up and no reserve, because with Trust Payments it cannot see the price or the contract until after it applies.