How to negotiate lower card processing fees (with scripts)

Every card fee has three parts:

• Interchange goes to the bank that issued the card. The card networks set it. Not negotiable.
• Card-brand fees go to Visa, Mastercard and the others. Not negotiable, but they should be passed through at cost.
• Processor markup and fees are your processor’s own price. Negotiable. This includes the markup percentage, the per-transaction fee, and monthly or yearly fees such as statement, PCI, batch and monthly minimum fees.

If you are on a flat rate or tiered plan, the markup is hidden inside the rate. Asking to move to interchange-plus is often the first step. See flat-rate vs interchange-plus.

1. Pull your last three statements. For each month, note card sales, number of transactions and total fees.
2. Work out your effective rate: total fees ÷ card sales × 100. Our guide to reading your merchant statement shows where to find each number.
3. List every processor fee with its name and monthly amount.
4. Find your contract. Note the end date, whether it renews automatically, the early-termination fee, and any equipment lease. A lease can outlast the processing contract and is often hard to cancel.
5. Find your merchant ID (MID) on the statement. You will need it on the call.

The processing fee calculator turns these numbers into an estimate of what you could save.

A written quote from another processor is your strongest card. Send one or two processors a recent statement and ask them to price it on interchange-plus, with:

• the markup as a percentage and a per-transaction fee
• every monthly, yearly and one-time fee
• contract length and early-termination fee
• equipment costs, and whether your POS works with them

Compare the quotes in total dollars per month on your real statement, not on the headline rate.

On the phone. Ask for the retention or pricing team, not general support:

Only mention other quotes if you have them. If you do, give the total, not the processor’s name, unless you want them to match it line by line.

In writing. Follow up by email, so there is a record:

The negotiation playbook fills in a letter with your own numbers.

The example restaurant from our statement guide takes $60,000 a month over 2,000 transactions. Its processor charges:

That is $280 a month, or $3,360 a year, with interchange and card-brand fees unchanged. The non-compliance fee goes by completing the yearly security questionnaire, with no negotiation needed.

• Ask what they can do: a partial cut, removing some fees, or a review in 90 days.
• Ask for a supervisor or the retention team.
• Work out the cost of leaving: early-termination fee, equipment, and the time to change your POS setup. If the yearly saving is bigger, switching may be worth it.
• If you switch, give notice in writing and keep a copy. Watch your bank account for fees after the account closes.

Whatever you agree, check the next statement. New pricing sometimes takes a cycle to show up, or doesn’t at all.