Can my marketing company own my Google Business Profile?

Google says a third party must let you take exclusive control back within seven working days of notice, and that a representative should leave you as the owner. Check People and access on a Google account that is yours. You want to be an owner.

Can a call-tracking number be the only number on my listing?

Google says the phone number on the profile should be the business's own authoritative number, verifiable by the owner. A tracking number you cannot keep, used as the only number, means the calls stop when the contract stops. Your real number should remain one you control.

Can I return a card machine and stop paying?

Only on the term you signed. For 14 large card-acquiring providers, the Payment Systems Regulator required new point-of-sale terminal contracts from January 2023 not to run longer than 18 months. That does not erase a minimum term already in a contract, and the Financial Ombudsman has left a remaining rental in place where the 18-month hire was clearly written.

Shared leads, and what the seller keeps when you leave

Q: Are Bark leads exclusive to one tradesperson?

Not as a rule. Bark's help centre, updated 26 June 2026, says each customer can receive up to five responses from professionals. You can see how many have already responded before you pay. A lead can still only become one job.

A lead you pay for is often the same enquiry sent to other trades at the same time. Bark's help centre says one customer can receive up to five responses. The quieter version of the same deal is the account you cannot log into: the Google profile, the only phone number on it, or a card machine with the rest of the term still owed.

Blake Folgado, Co-founder, Tradehand19 October 20268 min read

A clay electrician sorts papers at a kitchen table with a laptop

Key takeaways

On Bark, up to five professionals can respond to one customer. Ask any other lead seller for their number before you pay.
You pay for the introduction either way. The job can still only go to one of you.
A third party must hand exclusive control of your Google Business Profile back within seven working days of you telling them to stop.
The phone number and website on that profile must be yours. A card-machine term you signed can still be collected after you stop using the terminal.

One job, several invoices

Bark's help centre, updated 26 June 2026, says each customer can receive up to five responses from professionals. You can see how many have already responded before you pay. That is a published cap, not a rumour. Five trades can pay to chase one kitchen, one boiler, or one consumer unit. One of them gets the work.

The fee is for the chance to speak to that person. It is not a booking. If four others have the same name and number, you are in a quote race you funded. Ask, before you buy the credit or the month, how many other businesses receive that enquiry. If the seller will not put the number in writing, treat the lead as shared.

"Exclusive area" needs the same treatment. Exclusive means a named postcode list, a named cap on how many of their members cover it, and what happens when they sign someone else two streets away. A spoken patch is not a patch.

Directories and lead sites are a choice some trades still make with their eyes open. The expensive version is the one that hides the share, the area, and the minimum term. Owning the customer instead is the subject of stop paying for leads.

Source: Bark Help Centre: how many responses a customer can receive, updated 26 June 2026

The Google profile has to stay yours

Open the Business Profile on an account that is yours and look at People and access. You want to be an owner, and preferably the primary owner. Only owners can add and remove people. Only the primary owner can pass primary ownership on.

Google's third-party rules say you must be given a quick way to stop the service. Within seven working days of you saying so, they have to let you disconnect their Google account and take exclusive control back, and remove any permission they hold. The ownership rules say a representative should have you own the profile and add them as a manager, and must transfer it to you when you ask.

An agency may charge to look after the profile. They must tell you in writing, first, that the profile itself costs nothing, and the management fee has to appear on the invoice. A cold call that prices the listing as if Google charges for it is a different problem, covered in calls that pretend to be Google.

If someone else verified the profile and will not add you, request access from business.google.com/add. The current owner has three days to respond. For a service-area business with no shop, Google's help says to contact them and describe the issue as transferring ownership of the listing.

Sources: Google Business Profile Help: third-party policies, Google Business Profile Help: transfer primary ownership

The phone number and the website

Google's rules for people who manage a profile they do not own say the phone number and the website on it should be the single authoritative number and site for the business, verifiable by the owner. The website content must be owned and managed by the business.

A tracking number is useful when it sits beside your real number and you can take the tracking with you. It is a lock when it is the only number on the profile, the van, and the ads, and the number dies the day you cancel. Call the number from another phone. If it does not reach you without their system in the middle, it is not your number yet.

The same test applies to the domain. If the name is registered to them, you are renting the address customers already know. The checks are in what a monthly website contract should show. Ad accounts have the same shape: partner access on an account you own, which is set out in Facebook and online ad packages.

Source: Google Business Profile Help: eligibility and ownership

The card machine term

The terminal on the passenger seat is another minimum term. In October 2022 the Payment Systems Regulator said that, for 14 of the largest card-acquiring providers, point-of-sale terminal contracts must not run for more than 18 months. Those firms had to apply that from January 2023. The direction is not a promise that every terminal agreement in the country is 18 months, or that an older contract ended on that date.

Read the initial term, the notice period, and the sum due if you stop early. The Financial Ombudsman has looked at a terminal hire where the minimum term was 18 months and the written terms kept the remaining rental due if the hire ended early. The complaint was not upheld. A clear term can stick even when the machine is back in the box.

Ask for the rate, the monthly rental, and the early-exit figure on one page before you sign. "Free terminal" with a long hire behind it is a price, just not on the sticker. You do not have to accept a hire you cannot cancel, or an exit fee they will not write down. The same applies to a lead-site minimum term. If the only way to get the quoted price is a contract with no way out, refuse it and keep the number you already have.

Sources: Payment Systems Regulator: card-acquiring remedies, 6 October 2022, Financial Ombudsman Service: decision DRN-4915544, terminal hire minimum term

A short list to keep

Before the next marketing or payments direct debit, you should be able to open each of these yourself:

The Google Business Profile, as an owner.
The domain, with you or your company as the registrant.
The ad account, in your business portfolio, with their access as a partner.
The phone number printed on the van and the profile.
The card-machine contract, including what you owe if you return the terminal.

If one of those only opens when they send you a login, that item is theirs until the paperwork says otherwise.

Free includes the manual tools and the Assistant with £1 of usage a month: 5% of each payment Tradehand takes, card fees included. Paid plans from £25 a month add automation and more usage. Basic payment fees on your own jobs: From 1.25% + 20p, deducted automatically when the customer pays. Grow and Advanced have lower Tradehand payment fees. A hosted website is included on Free. Tradehand does not sell a shared lead, and it does not keep the customer's phone call in an account you cannot open.