Your Guide to Vape & E-Cigarette Payment Processing in 2025
Struggling to find a payment provider for your vape business? You’re not alone.
Over the past few years, the UK vaping industry has faced mounting challenges — from sensational media headlines to tighter government restrictions on disposable vapes. These pressures are pushing acquiring banks to reconsider their support, especially for online vape sellers.
While in-store sales are still seen as relatively low-risk, online vape merchants now face growing scrutiny around age verification, marketing practices, and card scheme compliance.
In this guide, we’ll break down what’s really going on behind the scenes — and how you can still secure a reliable, affordable merchant account for your vape business.
Card Scheme Regulations for Vapes Online
Visa and Mastercard card schemes have regulatory requirements regarding the online sale and distribution of vaping and e-cigarette related products. All businesses that process card payments need to be registered with card schemes, either for domestic sales or cross-border if distributing internationally.
Costs incurred for registration range from £500 to over £1200 per year, so it’s important to understand your requirements for processing card payments online.
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Shopping Cart Integrations
With the popularity of platforms such as Shopify and WordPress for easy drag-and-drop website building, many businesses naturally opt for the built-in payment methods of Stripe. However, Stripe’s merchant acceptance policy doesn’t allow for higher risk verticals, and unfortunately, many realize too late and are left spending money on an integration they have no easy way to process payments on.
Shopify Third Party Processing
Thankfully, third-party providers are available; however, it is worth knowing upfront that Shopify charge third party fees for not using their preferred payment method. Fees range from 0.50% to 2% per transaction, depending on your subscription level.
These fees are on top of acquiring fees and can quickly add up to over 4% in charges, which can really eat into your bottom line.
Here at Northern Payments we can provide initial advice on the best platforms to use, if you’re currently planning on building your website or switching integrations, it’s best to consult with an expert first and avoid unwelcome bills later down the line.
Vaping Products and TPD Compliance
The vast majority of vape products sold by wholesalers in the UK/EU are fully legal and TPD compliant, nicotine content must be below 10ml per refill container and nicotine strength can’t be more than 20mg per ml of liquid. With the ban on disposable vapes as of the 1st of June, these products can no longer be sold and would need to be removed.
Nicotine pouches are legal in the UK/EU, however, the product known as Snus with tobacco content is illegal to be sold in the UK and any EU country outside of Sweden.
Wholesale Distributors and Dropshipping
In the UK dropshipping is becoming increasingly popular within the vaping industry. Having the ability to source stock as and when supplier demand dictates, offers a powerful and cost saving option. Replacing the need to hold stock and risk loss of income from expiring products or changes in legal framework that could easily catch businesses unawares and cost thousands.
Wholesalers such as JM Wholesale and Orange County offer businesses the ability to have access to vast selections of stock options.
It is however worth checking when you upload stock listings to your site that you’re vetting all products for compliance. Some products may not be legal for all countries and it’s the responsibility of the business owner rather than the wholesaler to make sure your site is listed correctly.
How We Can Help You
- Having years of experience onboarding vaping businesses for merchant accounts across the UK/EU, we are in an excellent position to offer you expert advice on the best acquiring banks to consider for your next card payment account.
- Working closely with our panel of acquiring banks, we can offer market-leading preferential terms for both online Ecom integrations and point of sale card machines for in-store purchases.
- No need for rolling reserves and long delays in account setups, our average onboarding time is 7-10 working days to go live with high acceptance rates.
- We offer support for all major online website integrations, before taking the plunge on purchasing your new website or switching website builder consider getting in touch, we can offer free advice on the best platform and payment gateway integration to use.
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