Legal
Payment Services Terms
Last updated: 2 November 2026
In short
Card payments for Cervo merchants are provided by our regulated payment services partner, an FCA-authorised payment institution. It processes your card payments and holds and pays out your money.
Cervo Ltd is not a bank or a payment institution and does not hold or safeguard merchant funds.
Who does what
Cervo gives you the application, your merchant portal, the Cervo app and support. Our partner processes your card payments, holds the money from them and pays it out to you.
You deal with Cervo for everything. You apply through Cervo Apply, see your payments and payouts in your portal, and contact us at support@cervopay.co.uk with any question.
What this means for you
Your money is safeguarded
Our partner holds the money from your card payments until it is paid out to you. It keeps that money safeguarded, separate from its own money, as UK payment services rules require. Cervo never holds it.
Identity checks
Before your account opens, our partner must check who you are and who owns and runs your business. It may ask again later. We collect what it needs through Cervo Apply or your portal. Our partner makes the final decision on whether to accept a business.
Payouts
Our partner pays your money into the business bank account you gave us. You can see every payout in your portal, and you change your payout account there too.
Disputes are handled through Cervo
If a customer disputes a payment, we email you with a checklist of what to gather. You answer and upload your evidence in your portal, and we submit it to the card issuer for you. The card issuer makes the decision.
Our payment processing partner
Our payment processing partner is the regulated payment services partner described above. This term is part of your agreement with Cervo, which you accept when you apply in Cervo Apply. In it, “this agreement” means that agreement with Cervo.
You must not, during this agreement or at any time after it ends, contact our payment processing partner, or take payment services from it or any company in its group, directly or through anyone else, other than through Cervo. If our partner contacts you about your account (for example, for identity checks), reply through us or tell us at support@cervopay.co.uk. This does not stop you doing anything the law gives you a right to do.
To make a complaint, see our Complaints page.
The full terms
You accept these payment services terms when you apply in Cervo Apply. The full terms are available on request. Email support@cervopay.co.uk and we will send you a copy. You can ask for them before you apply.
Contact us
Questions about these terms: support@cervopay.co.uk. See also our Regulatory Information and Complaints pages.