If you run a WooCommerce store from the UK, the default payment options bundled with WordPress are almost certainly costing you more than they should. Stripe and PayPal are easy to install, but their UK pricing is set by their global rate card — not by what's competitive in the UK acquiring market.
What a WooCommerce-native gateway should give you
A good UK WooCommerce gateway needs to do five things well: process Visa, Mastercard, Amex, and Apple/Google Pay; settle into a UK bank account next day; pass 3-D Secure 2 without breaking conversion; handle refunds from inside WooCommerce; and not lock your storefront into a checkout redirect that kills mobile conversion.
Why merchants switch from Stripe and PayPal
- Cost — Monek's blended UK rate starts at 0.99% vs Stripe's standard 1.5% + 20p for UK cards. On a £30k/month store that is over £150/month saved before you account for premium-card surcharges.
- UK-first settlement — Monek is an FCA-authorised acquirer (FRN 920628) settling directly into UK bank accounts the next working day, with no holding period.
- Conversion-friendly checkout — the Monek WooCommerce plugin keeps the customer on your domain and supports inline tokenised card capture, so you keep your storefront's design and reduce bounce on mobile.
- Human support — a named UK account manager, reachable by phone and email, instead of a help-centre ticket queue.
Installing the Monek WooCommerce plugin
The plugin is free, available from the WordPress.org directory, and takes around five minutes to install. You'll need your Monek merchant ID and API credentials from the Monek Portal. Once activated, all your existing WooCommerce product, cart, and refund flows continue to work — only the payment processor underneath them changes.
The bottom line
If your store is doing more than £10k/month in card sales, switching from Stripe or PayPal to Monek typically pays for itself in the first week. The setup is the same, the conversion is the same, and the rate is materially lower.