PSA: CardUp hiking service fees from June 2026

On paper, CardUp has a standard service fee of 2.6%, though in practice hardly anyone pays it— and with good reason. At that level, the cost per mile with most general spending cards would be highly unattractive, especially when compared to alternatives like Citi PayAll and SC EasyBill.

But even though this rate is largely theoretical, it still matters because it serves as the baseline from which CardUp’s other promotions take their reference.

Unfortunately, CardUp has announced that it will be increasing its standard service fee from 13 June 2026, which will have a knock-on effect on the rest of its ongoing promotions.

At CardUp, we’ve always taken a customer-first approach to pricing. Like others in the industry, we’re navigating an increase in card processing costs. After careful consideration, we’ll be making a small adjustment to our standard service fee so we can continue enabling you to use your cards where they’re not usually accepted, while keeping CardUp sustainable for the long term. -CardUp

You’re going to want to pay attention to this, because it isn’t just a forward-looking change. Existing payment arrangements set up before 13 June 2026 will have the revised fees automatically applied, which could lead to a nasty surprise for those who miss the memo.

CardUp increasing service fees

From 13 June 2026, CardUp’s standard service fee will increase from 2.6% to 2.9%. 

In line with this change, CardUp’s various promotional rates will also be adjusted from this date. The platform has yet to share these rates, though it claims that it will continue offering “competitive” promotions across recurring and one-off payments, including rent, insurance and tax.

Here’s the important thing to know: Existing scheduled payments with promo codes charged from 13 June 2026 will have the applicable promotional rate automatically updated to the new rate. 

For example, if you have a recurring rental payment that uses the RENT183 code, your rate will be automatically adjusted from 1.83% to whatever the new rate is, for any payment processed from 13 June 2026 onwards.

What will those new rates look like? Your guess is as good as mine. I don’t think it’s as simple as taking an 11.5% increase (2.6% to 2.9%) and applying it to all existing promotional rates, because it’s likely some categories will be hit harder than others. For what it’s worth, I believe we’ll continue to see relatively lower rates for categories like rental and taxes, where there’s more competition.

What’s the cost per mile?

Here’s what a 2.9% service fee means for the cost per mile on the various general spending cards that can be used with CardUp.

Again, it’s important to emphasise that no one actually pays the standard service fee. Even right now, CardUp is running a year-round OFF235 promotion that reduces the fee to 2.35% for AMEX, Visa and Mastercards, for all payments except tax (for which even lower fees apply).

However, it’s quite clear that whatever your cost per mile is right now, it’ll be higher from 13 June 2026— the only question is how much?

What are CardUp’s current fees?

I’ve compiled CardUp’s current public promotional offers in the table below.

If you want to take advantage of the current fee structure, make sure your payment is charged before 13 June 2026, and remember: from 13 June 2026, the fees will be automatically revised to whatever the new level is. 

Conclusion

CardUp will hike its standard service fee from 2.6% to 2.9% from 13 June 2026, which will also lead to an increase in its various promotional rates. 

The new fees will apply to all payments charged from that day onwards, regardless of when they were set up. Existing promotional rates will be automatically revised from that date onwards too.

In my opinion, this is being handled rather poorly. CardUp should not be announcing a fee increase without simultaneously disclosing the revised promotional rates, as users need that information to decide whether to continue using the platform. As things stand, there’s a big question mark hanging over CardUp’s value proposition from this time next month, and the sooner we have clarity the better.