Card Processing Fees · Guides

Make sense of card payment costs

Clear guides for reading a statement, comparing a written quote, and understanding the fees behind every sale.

Three useful first steps

Read your statementWhere on a merchant statement do you find what card processing actually cost you?In the charges and fees section, not in the deposit. The gap between sales and what reached your bank also holds refunds, chargebacks, and adjustments, so it is always larger than the processing cost.Read the guide →Compare pricing modelsDoes a flat rate, interchange-plus, tiered, or subscription plan cost a merchant the least?None of them is cheapest by design. The answer depends on how much you process and which cards your customers carry.Read the guide →Online or in person?Do online card payments cost more than in-person ones?Yes, at every provider compared here. Square, Stripe, Chase, and PayPal each charge a higher percentage online, and every one of them charges a bigger fixed fee per online sale.Read the guide →

How a card payment works

6 guides

What actually happens between a card tap and the money reaching your bank?The approval you see at the register is only the card issuer saying yes; no money has moved yet. After you capture the sale, your acquiring bank collects the funds from the issuer, keeps its fee…Read article →Is a merchant account just another business bank account?No. A merchant account holds card proceeds before they move to the checking account you use to pay bills, and you may never open one in your own name.Read article →Who is the acquirer in a card payment, and how is it different from the card issuer?The acquirer is the merchant's bank for card payments, and the issuer is the customer's. You pay the acquirer a merchant discount on each sale, and the acquirer pays the issuer an interchange fee…Read article →What are you actually buying when you sign up for merchant services?You are buying a bundle, and the contents change from one seller to the next. Merchant services can include payment processing, a merchant account, an online gateway, terminals or POS software…Read article →Do you need a merchant account, a processor, and a gateway, or can one company cover all three?One company can cover all three. Stripe's standard plan and Authorize.Net's All-in-one plan both do. The roles stay separate underneath: the merchant account holds card proceeds, the processor…Read article →Who is your contract really with when you sign up through an ISO or a payment facilitator?In most cases, with the acquirer: the bank that sponsors your business on the card networks. Visa says a seller who signs with an ISO is signing with the acquirer, and that a payment facilitator…Read article →

Reading the price

10 guides

The three numbers behind a card rateA percentage, a flat fee per sale, and a fixed monthly cost decide what a card costs. The same plan can take 5.98% or 3.30% of sales.Read article →What the headline rate leaves outInterchange, business and foreign cards, chargebacks, minimum monthly charges, PCI fees, rental, and the VAT basis.Read article →How to read the effective rate on this siteWhat goes into the effective-rate column, what stays out of it, and the three choices it quietly makes on your behalf.Read article →Why interchange-plus pricing cannot be totaledHelcim, Stax, and Payment Depot publish their markup but not the interchange under it, so this site prints the markup and stops there.Read article →Does a flat rate, interchange-plus, tiered, or subscription plan cost a merchant the least?None of them is cheapest by design. The answer depends on how much you process and which cards your customers carry.Read article →Where on a merchant statement do you find what card processing actually cost you?In the charges and fees section, not in the deposit. The gap between sales and what reached your bank also holds refunds, chargebacks, and adjustments, so it is always larger than the processing cost.Read article →Is a debit card sale cheaper for a merchant than a credit card sale?Underneath, yes, by a wide margin. On a $50 in-person sale, Visa's published interchange is 24.5¢ for a debit card from a large bank and 85.5¢ for a consumer credit card in Visa's "All Other…Read article →Why does a keyed-in or online card payment cost a merchant more than a tapped one?Because the card networks already charge more for it. Visa's interchange on a consumer credit card is 1.51% plus 10¢ in person and 1.89% plus 10¢ when the card is not present, and processors pass…Read article →Do online card payments cost more than in-person ones?Yes, at every provider compared here. Square, Stripe, Chase, and PayPal each charge a higher percentage online, and every one of them charges a bigger fixed fee per online sale.Read article →What does it cost you when a customer pays with a card from another country?Usually another 1.5% of the sale on top of the normal fee. Square and Stripe add 1.5% for cards issued abroad, PayPal adds 1.50% to international commercial transactions, and Stripe adds a further…Read article →

Choosing a plan and equipment

10 guides

Is there one card processor that is cheapest for every shop?No. Whether a plan with a monthly fee beats a pay-as-you-go plan depends on how much a shop takes on cards each month, and the point where they swap places can be calculated.Read article →What should a small shop decide before it picks a card processor?Your average sale, first. Every flat-rate plan adds a fixed amount to each payment, so the cheapest provider for an $8 coffee order is not the cheapest for a $60 haircut.Read article →Does a card payment cost the same at the counter, online, by invoice, and over the phone?No. Chase charges 2.6% plus 10 cents when a card is tapped, dipped, or swiped, 2.9% plus 25 cents for e-commerce, and 3.5% plus 10 cents when a card number is keyed in or paid through a payment link.Read article →Can you take card payments on your phone without buying a reader?Yes, as long as the customer taps. An iPhone XS or later, or an NFC-equipped Android phone, can take contactless cards and phone wallets through a processor's Tap to Pay feature with no extra…Read article →Does a small shop need a card reader, a payment terminal, or a full POS system?A reader is enough if a phone or tablet can run the checkout. A terminal makes sense when you want one device that takes the card and prints the receipt, and a POS system is for shops that also…Read article →What does a POS system really cost each month once card processing is included?For a two-station restaurant taking $40,000 a month on cards, published SpotOn pricing works out to roughly $1,240 to $1,316 a month, and almost all of that is processing.Read article →What kind of payment software do you need for phone orders, online checkout, or your own app?Phone orders go through a virtual terminal, where staff type in the card number. Online orders go through a checkout page the customer fills in, and payments inside your own site or app go through…Read article →Why does the same card rate cost a gift shop more than a furniture store?The fixed part of the fee is the same dime or fifteen cents on every sale, so it weighs far more on a $10 purchase than on a $100 one.Read article →Should a restaurant pay a higher rate to get POS hardware included?It can be. On SpotOn's published prices, a restaurant doing $60,000 a month on cards with five devices saves $114 a month by buying its own hardware, which takes about 25 months to earn back the…Read article →Does a small business still have to deal with PCI DSS if a processor handles the cards?Yes. The PCI Security Standards Council says the standard covers every merchant regardless of size or transaction volume, and handing processing to a third party does not remove the merchant's…Read article →

Deposits, disputes, surcharges and risk

4 guides

What does it cost to get card sales into your bank faster than the next business day?Between 1.5% and 1.95% of the amount you move, on top of your processing fees. Square charges 1.95% for instant and same-day transfers, QuickBooks Payments 1.75%, and Stripe and PayPal 1.5% with a…Read article →How much more does a chargeback cost a merchant than a refund?On Stripe, a chargeback costs $15 the moment it is opened and another $15 if you fight it, on top of losing the sale while it is decided.Read article →Who pays when a card processor advertises zero fees?Either you or your customer. Square's no-subscription plan is literally named Square Free, and it still charges 2.6% + 15¢ every time a card is tapped, dipped, or swiped.Read article →What changes once a processor decides your business is high risk?Mostly two things: whether you get approved at all, and how soon your sales reach your bank. Stripe publishes one list of businesses it will not serve and a second list it will serve only after…Read article →

Banks and local sellers

8 guides

What a 'get a quote' button is forWhat a comparison site collects when it asks for your turnover and a phone number instead of showing you a price.Read article →Who publishes a card rate, and who does notIn the US, 7 of 22 providers publish enough to build a total from. In the UK, 13 of 20 do. Several publish only up to a stated turnover.Read article →Is card processing from your own bank cheaper than Square or Stripe?Not reliably. On published in-person pricing, a store doing $30,000 a month at a $25 ticket would pay $870 with Stripe, $900 with Chase or PNC, $960 with Square, and about $980 with Wells Fargo…Read article →Does it matter whether your merchant services company is local?Not for the rate. Whoever signs you up, the payment still runs through the card networks and the merchant's acquiring bank, and some sellers, SpotOn among them, describe themselves as registered…Read article →Do you have to bank with Bank of America to use its merchant services?Yes. Bank of America requires a Bank of America business checking account to apply, and your card sales must settle into it.Read article →Do U.S. Bank's published card rates apply if you sign up at a branch?Not necessarily. U.S. Bank's published rates of 2.60% + 12¢ in person, 3.50% + 15¢ keyed, and 3.30% + 30¢ online apply to online applications, and the bank says fees may vary and other fees may…Read article →Does Truist Merchant Services only make sense if you already bank with Truist?The two advantages Truist spells out, next-business-day funding and a monthly statement credit of $5 or $10, both depend on having Truist business deposits.Read article →Does QuickBooks Payments cost more than Stripe or Square once the invoices get bigger?Yes, above about $333 per card payment and by a wide margin on large ACH invoices, because QuickBooks charges 2.99% on online and invoice card payments with no per-transaction cents, and its…Read article →

Named providers

14 guides

When you sign up for Clover, which company are you really signing with?If you apply through Fiserv's merchant site, your contract is with First Data Merchant Services LLC, backed by one of seven sponsor banks, and Clover is the hardware and software brand on top.Read article →Who pays the card fees when Slice says processing costs the merchant nothing?Customers who pay by card cover it. Slice's Dual Pricing posts the card price and gives cash and check payers 3.99% off, so the merchant keeps the full card price and pays Slice a flat monthly…Read article →Is GoDaddy's Rate Saver really 0%, or only 0% on some of your sales?Only credit cards drop to 0%, and only in person, on invoices, and on pay links. Keyed-in credit still costs 0.5%, debit cards keep rates from 1.9% to 3.5%, and GoDaddy's own online store and…Read article →Will a high-risk business get HighRiskPay.com's 1.79% rate?No. The 1.79% belongs to the Retail Good Credit (card swipe) row; the High Risk row is 2.95%, and every rate in the table sits under a column headed "As Low As."Read article →When Real Merchant Services says you can stop paying card fees, who pays instead?Your credit card customers, mostly. Real Merchant Services' own site lists no prices, but its Hawaii representative publishes a Hybrid program where credit cards cost the merchant 0% and the…Read article →What does START Merchant Services charge on top of interchange?START doesn't publish it. The company says it uses interchange-plus pricing exclusively, with a small fixed markup, but no page on its site gives that markup as a percentage or in cents, and…Read article →Is United Merchant Services the same company as BLUU?No. They are two companies selling under one brand. Bluu, Inc. makes the POS software and hardware, United Merchant Services, Inc. (UMSI) is the payment-services company, and UMSI holds an…Read article →How much does Paysafe charge a U.S. business to process cards?Paysafe's published standard price for U.S. businesses is interchange and card-network dues at cost, plus 0.50% and $0.10 per transaction, a $7.95 customer service charge, and $25 per chargeback.Read article →Is 2.69% + 9¢ really what Valor Merchant Services would charge?Only as a starting point, and only for Clover swipes. The site says Clover point-of-sale systems accept all payment types "all from 2.69% + 9¢ per swipe," with no plan named and no rate given for…Read article →With iQ Merchant's 0% markup, what do you actually pay each month?Interchange and network costs at cost, plus a flat monthly membership fee that iQ Merchant does not price on its public pages.Read article →What does Clarus Merchant Services offer B2B distributors, and what does it charge?Clarus sells two ways to cut the cost of cards for B2B distributors: automated Level 3 data that lowers interchange on corporate and purchasing cards, and a surcharge program called RevNew that…Read article →Does CardConnect publish its processing rates anywhere?No. CardConnect's site puts a price on exactly two things, a virtual terminal that "comes complimentary" with a CardPointe account and a mobile app that is free, and says nothing about the…Read article →Is Global Merchant Services part of Global Payments?Nothing on either company's website links them. Global Merchant Services sells terminals and processing to businesses in the U.S. and Canada, while Global Payments is a Fortune 500 processor whose…Read article →Is AUS Merchant Services a card processor a U.S. shop can sign up with?Not in the way Square or Stripe is. AUS Merchant Services, a subsidiary of Ant Group once known as Alipay US, shows up behind Zyla, a multi-currency account and transfer service for American…Read article →