SumUp, Dojo and Teya: how terminal advances work and what they cost
Cash advances built into SumUp, Dojo and Teya card terminals, repaid as a fixed slice of card takings.
How it works
SumUp, Dojo and Teya all sell card machines to UK small businesses, and each one offers a cash advance on the side. The shape of the deal is the same across all three. The provider already processes your card takings, so it offers a lump sum based on what it can see. You then repay through a set percentage of your card sales, deducted automatically until the advance is cleared. There is no interest rate ticking away. You pay one fixed fee, agreed upfront.
SumUp's version is invite only. In its own words, "Only merchants who are offered a SumUp Cash Advance can request funding." You cannot apply from cold. If SumUp decides to offer you money, the offer appears in your account and you choose whether to take it. The advance is provided by SumUp Payments Limited, not by YouLend as with Dojo and Teya, and it is for business-purpose accounts only. SumUp does not publish how much it advances.
Dojo names its funder openly. Its business funding runs in partnership with YouLend, and you can apply for up to £1 million. Dojo says offers arrive within 24 hours and funds often land within 2 business days. The partnership has funded over £1 billion since 2020, across more than 20,000 businesses. You repay a fixed percentage of your future card sales.
Teya's Cash Advance is provided by Liberis and YouLend and runs from £1,000 to £500,000. To qualify you need 3 or more months of steady transactions and at least £1,000 a month in card volume. Repayment is a fixed percentage of daily card sales, with one important floor: a 3% monthly minimum, so repayments do not fall to zero in a dead month. Teya also offers a separate Flexi Loan, provided by iwoca, of up to £1 million with interest from around 1% a month, repaid by fixed monthly Direct Debit over 12 to 24 months. That one is for UK limited companies only.
The cost across all three is a single fixed fee, set when you accept the offer. Here is the catch, and it is a feature of every fixed-fee advance, not a quirk of these brands. The fee never shrinks. As an illustration only (none of these providers publishes example fees), a £10,000 advance with a £1,500 fee costs £1,500 whether it takes six months or eighteen to repay. Clear it in six months and that is roughly the same as paying 30% a year for the money, and more once you allow for the balance shrinking as you go. Take eighteen months and the same fee works out much cheaper per year. Busy months speed up repayment, which quietly raises the yearly cost.
One housekeeping note. Zettle, the other big name in small card readers, no longer offers its own cash advance. That product is discontinued and Zettle is now PayPal Point of Sale. If you take payments on the PayPal side of the fence, the equivalent route is PayPal Working Capital.
What it really costs
None of the three publishes a representative example, standard fee rates or a price list at the time of checking. What they publish is the shape of the deal. SumUp says: "No hidden costs or interest - you pay only a fixed fee upfront based on the size of the cash advance offer". Teya says: "A simple fixed fee upfront. No compounding interest, no hidden charges". Dojo's funding runs through YouLend and is repaid as a fixed percentage of future card sales.
In plain English: you find out the real cost only when an offer lands in your account. The fee is fixed in pounds on day one, which makes budgeting simple. But no interest does not mean cheap. A fixed fee repaid quickly can cost far more per year than a bank loan, because the speed of repayment is the hidden dial. The faster your card takings clear the advance, the higher the true annual cost of the money.
Four numbers pin down the real cost of any offer: the advance amount, the total fee in pounds, the percentage of card sales taken, and any monthly minimum (Teya's is 3%). Together with your normal takings, they show what the fee works out at per year. Our guide to the true cost of a merchant cash advance walks through the sums.
Who can apply
- You already take card payments through SumUp, Dojo or Teya
- SumUp: invite only, and business-purpose accounts only
- Teya: 3 or more months of steady transactions and £1,000+ in monthly card volume
- Dojo: specific criteria are not published at the time of checking
- Teya's separate iwoca Flexi Loan: UK limited companies only
Good for
- Card-heavy businesses that want repayments to rise and fall with takings
- Owners who value one fixed fee, known in pounds on day one
- Getting an offer priced off card sales the provider already processes
- Seasonal trades, though quiet-month rules differ by brand
Watch out for
- The fee never shrinks. Clear the advance quickly and you have paid a high yearly rate for a short loan.
- Teya applies a 3% monthly minimum, so a quiet month does not pause repayments the way SumUp says its version does.
- SumUp is invite only. You cannot plan around it, you wait for an offer to appear in your account.
- None of the three publishes fees or example costs in advance at the time of checking. You only learn the price when the offer lands.
- YouLend sits behind both Dojo and Teya (Teya's advance also involves Liberis), but not SumUp. So compare the pound cost, not the brand on the machine.
How SumUp, Dojo and Teya compares
The main draw here is convenience: the offer sits inside a terminal you already use. But the money behind both Dojo and Teya comes from YouLend (Teya's advance also involves Liberis), so compare the pound cost rather than the logo on the card machine. If your business is a UK limited company and a fixed monthly payment fits better than a slice of takings, iwoca is a natural comparison, and Teya itself offers an iwoca-provided Flexi Loan alongside its advance. If you take payments through Square rather than these three, Square Loans is the comparison on that side.
Put SumUp, Dojo and Teya side by side with another lender →
Common questions
Can I apply for a SumUp Cash Advance?
Not from cold. SumUp says only merchants who are offered a Cash Advance can request funding, so the offer has to appear in your SumUp account first. It is provided by SumUp Payments Limited and is for business-purpose accounts only.
How quickly does the money arrive?
Dojo publishes the clearest timings: offers within 24 hours and funds often within 2 business days. SumUp and Teya do not publish timings at the time of checking. All three already process your card payments, so offers are priced off data they already hold rather than fresh paperwork.
What happens in a quiet month?
With SumUp, repayments track sales exactly. In its words, "When you don't make sales, you won't pay anything back". Teya is different: it takes a fixed percentage of daily card sales but applies a 3% monthly minimum, so some repayment is due even in a bad month. Dojo repays as a fixed percentage of future card sales and does not publish a minimum at the time of checking.
Do I save money by repaying early?
No. The fee is fixed upfront and does not shrink if the advance clears quickly. A fast repayment actually makes the money more expensive per year, because you paid the same fee for a shorter borrowing period. That is the opposite of a normal loan, where early repayment usually cuts the interest.
Can sole traders get these advances?
The advances sit inside business card accounts, and SumUp specifies business-purpose accounts only. None of the three publishes a rule excluding sole traders from its cash advance at the time of checking. One exception to note: Teya's separate Flexi Loan, provided by iwoca, is for UK limited companies only.
What happened to Zettle's cash advance?
It has been discontinued. Zettle is now PayPal Point of Sale, and the funding route on that side of the business is PayPal Working Capital, an advance repaid from your PayPal sales.
Regulation and status
These products are business cash advances, not regulated lending. Each provider describes its product in its own terms, and we mirror that framing here rather than calling any of them a regulated loan.
FundSpeed has no partner or affiliate arrangement with SumUp, Dojo or Teya. If that ever changes, it will not change what we write. Facts checked on 7 September 2026 against the sources below. Spotted a change? Tell us and we will fix it.