How to read your card processing statement.

Step 01

Find your effective rate

Your effective rate is everything you paid in processing fees for the month, divided by your card sales for the same month. It's the one number that lets you compare any two ways of taking cards, whatever each statement calls its fees.

• Card sales: often called total sales, gross volume or amount submitted. Use the total for card payments.
• Fees: the total of every fee for the month, including the fixed ones: account, statement and compliance fees count too.
• Then divide. $1,200 in fees on $40,000 in card sales is an effective rate of 3.00%.

Step 02

Read the line items

Most of what you pay goes to the bank that issued each card and to the card networks. The rest is your processor's. These are the lines you're likely to see, in plain words. The same list on our pricing page shows how they work on an account with us.

Interchange

The biggest part of every card payment. It depends on the card (debit, rewards, business) and how it was taken (in person, online or keyed in).

To the card's bank

Network fees

Also called assessments. A small percentage, and sometimes a few cents, charged by the card brand on each payment.

To the card network

Processor margin

The markup over interchange and network fees, as a percentage and sometimes a few cents per payment. It may be called a discount rate or markup.

To your processor

Bank payment (ACH) fee

A fee per bank payment, either a flat amount or a percentage, depending on the account.

To your processor

ACH return fee

Charged when a bank payment bounces, for example for insufficient funds or a closed account.

To your processor

Chargeback fee

A flat fee when a customer disputes a card payment with their bank, whatever the outcome.

To your processor

Account fees

Statement, compliance, gateway or annual fees. Fixed amounts, so they weigh more in a slow month.

To your processor

Step 03

Check for red flags

None of these is wrong on its own, but each is worth a question to your processor. They're where a statement most often costs more than the rate you were quoted.

• Qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified rates. This is tiered pricing: the processor groups payments into rate tiers of its choice, and the quoted rate is usually the lowest tier. Rewards, business and keyed-in cards often land in the higher ones (CardFellow). Look at how much of your volume falls outside "qualified".
• A PCI non-compliance fee. It's charged when your processor has no record of your security questionnaire or scans, and it repeats until you complete them. Completing them usually stops it, and some processors waive the fee if you act quickly (SecureTrust).
• A monthly minimum. If your processing fees for the month fall below a set amount, you're charged the difference. It mostly hits slow or seasonal months (Merchant Maverick).
• Fees you can't match to anything. A charge whose name doesn't match a service you use or a fee in your agreement. Ask what it's for and where it's in your contract.
• An early termination fee in your agreement. It may be a flat amount, or "liquidated damages": your average monthly fees times the months left on the contract. Contracts that renew automatically make it easy to miss the window to leave without one (CardFellow).

Step 04

Get a second look

Send us a recent statement and we'll price the same month on your own merchant account, line by line, and point out anything on the list above. It costs nothing, and you're not committing to anything.

• One recent monthly statement, every page. A PDF or a photo is fine.
• Your processing agreement, if you have it, so we can check the term and any termination fee.
• The software you invoice from, so we can tell you what switching would look like.