Compare Payment Providers in the United States

How we compare payment processing in the US

We list 13 card processors selling into the US market, and a published rate card exists for 8 providers. Where a company will not publish a rate, the table shows a quote. Every figure comes from the provider's own pricing page.

The calculator takes your monthly card volume, average transaction and in-person share, applies each provider's published rate and per-transaction charge to each channel, and adds the monthly fee. Enter your current rate and it shows the difference. Commission does not change the order.

Flat rate, interchange-plus or subscription: how payment processing is priced

Almost every US quote is one of three shapes. A flat rate is one published percentage plus a fixed charge, the same for every card, with interchange folded in. Interchange-plus passes interchange through at cost and adds a stated markup, which is what a row beginning with IC means. A subscription charges a monthly fee for interchange at cost with little or no percentage on top.

Stax charges $99/mo for its rate, which is the subscription shape. The crossover between shapes is the calculation to run: a monthly fee shrinks as a share of turnover the more you process, while a percentage markup grows in a straight line, and a fixed charge is a heavy tax on a small ticket. Enter your own numbers rather than reading the percentages. There is no regulatory cap on credit card interchange in the US, so on a blended flat rate a business whose customers pay with debit subsidizes one whose customers pay with rewards credit.

Direct or reseller: the payment processing contract behind the brand

Some of these brands are sold both directly and through resellers, and the reseller channel is where the contract terms live. Clover is one example: its contract and fee rows say the terms vary by reseller, so merchants running identical hardware can be on very different terms. Read the paper you are handed, not the brand.

Settle before you sign: whether the term is fixed, whether early termination is a flat amount or a charge per month remaining, whether PCI is included or billed monthly, and who owns the hardware when you leave. Anything sold through a person is a negotiation, which cuts both ways.

Square and Clover payment processing side by side

This is the head-to-head US merchants run most often. Rates by channel are in the first table; the rows that separate the two are the fees around the rate.

Clover's software plan and fees are part of what the reseller configures, so confirm every row in writing rather than assuming it from the website.

Payment processing when the card is not in the room

The online rate in the first table is what a remote sale costs over a tapped one. A keyed or phone order through a virtual terminal is priced at the online rate or worse, because nobody proved the card was there.

Every row here lists payment links, hosted checkout, online invoices and recurring billing, with Toast as the exception: its payment links row reads No, its invoices row Existing Toast customers only and its virtual terminal No. Airwallex's virtual terminal row reads Not stated.

For recurring billing, ask whether failed cards are retried automatically and whether the stored card vault can be migrated out if you leave.

Cards issued outside the US carry an added percentage, and sometimes a conversion charge on top. If you sell overseas regularly, that row can move more money than a tenth of a point on your domestic rate. The providers that publish it:

The rest of the table reads not stated on that row, which means the provider does not publish it, not that there is no charge.

Chargebacks, refunds and payout speed in payment processing

Three lines on a statement have nothing to do with your rate and can outweigh a rate difference over a year. Multiply the dispute fee by a realistic dispute count. On refunds, the question is whether your original processing fee comes back; in apparel or anything with a high return rate, read that row before the rate.

Standard settlement timing is in the Settlement time row of the comparison table. Paying to move money you earned a day earlier is short-term financing, and the percentages read cheap only because they are quoted per transfer rather than annualized. Work out what daily transfers cost across a year before leaving it on.

Surcharging and the payment processing rules in your state

Passing the cost of card acceptance on to the customer is permitted in most US states, subject to conditions, and it is where merchants most often get into trouble. Two rule sets apply at once, and the stricter governs. The card networks set requirements for merchants who surcharge, typically including registration before you start, a cap on the amount, clear disclosure at the entrance, the point of sale and the receipt, and an exclusion of debit and prepaid cards. Separately, a small number of states restrict or prohibit the practice. Confirm your own state's current position and the current network rules, and get your processor's answer in writing.

Cash discounting, where the posted price already includes card acceptance and a customer paying another way gets a discount, is treated differently in both state law and network rules.

Your pricing model decides whether you can even calculate a fair surcharge. On interchange-plus or a subscription account, interchange and markup arrive as separate lines, so you know what a sale cost you; a flat rate is one blended number by design. If your margin is thin enough that surcharging looks necessary, price those options first: lowering your own cost carries none of the customer-facing risk.