Amounts, terms and timelines are typical ranges for complete files, subject to underwriting and lender approval.
Compare all programsEducational content only, not a commitment to lend, and not tax, legal or accounting advice.
Browse the AcademyCompare online merchant services against the way your business gets paid: web checkout, payment links, invoices, phone orders or subscriptions. A useful ecommerce payment solution must fit your platform, cash-flow needs and customer experience as well as your fees. Start with a statement review and ask for a written proposal naming the supported setup, total cost and switching requirements. No monthly sales threshold proves one pricing model is cheaper.
For the same statement period, divide total processing costs by card-sales volume and multiply by 100. That all-in effective rate is different from a percentage fee quoted before transaction and monthly charges. Separate channels if their pricing differs.
Record card-sales volume, transaction count, average ticket and your checkout, invoice, keyed and in-person mix. A $0.30 charge adds 7.5 percentage points to a $4 payment before any percentage fee. Compare realistic ticket sizes rather than only the advertised rate.
Include applicable gateway, platform, PCI, batch, minimum, subscription, fraud-tool and equipment charges. Add per-authorization fees, including unsuccessful attempts when billed. Confirm what is included so the same fee is not counted twice.
Ask whether original processing fees are returned after a refund, what dispute handling costs, and whether international cards or currency conversion add charges. Use your own recent activity to estimate these costs; a lower headline percentage alone cannot settle the comparison.
Payment approval, settlement, a scheduled payout and an available bank deposit are different events. Ask for the first-payout timing, ongoing schedule, cutoff times, weekend treatment and reserve or hold conditions for your specific account. Do not plan payroll around an unconfirmed deposit date.
| Method | What to confirm | Costs to include |
|---|---|---|
| Ecommerce checkout | Supported gateway, platform plan, plugins and support owner | Percentage, transaction, gateway and applicable platform charges |
| Payment links and invoices | Who enters payment data, reconciliation and ACH if offered | Invoiced or keyed card rates, ACH, returns and software fees |
| Subscriptions and phone orders | Vault, migration, recurring schedules and supported virtual terminal | Recurring, vault, verification, authorization and setup fees |
A feature is included only when the proposal confirms it. Also compare cancellation, equipment leases and applicable security requirements with your providers.
Same $30,000 monthly volume and 600 payments of $50. Assumes unchanged activity and no other charges; add those that apply to your business.
| Item | Current | Comparison |
|---|---|---|
| Percentage plus per-payment fee | 2.9% + $0.30 | 2.7% + $0.20 |
| Percentage and transaction charges | $1,050 monthly | $930 monthly |
| Other monthly charges | $20 | $60 |
| Monthly total and effective rate | $1,070 / 3.57% | $990 / 3.30% |
| One-time transition cost | $0 | $1,200 |
| First-year total cost | $12,840 | $13,080 |
The comparison saves $80 monthly but costs $240 more in year one. Over three years, under unchanged assumptions and with the transition cost charged once, the saving would be $1,680. This is not a savings guarantee.
| Check | What must be resolved |
|---|---|
| Contract and exit | Term, auto-renewal, notice, termination, lease and account-overlap costs |
| Subscriptions and saved cards | Permitted provider-to-provider transfer, excluded features and rebuilt schedules |
| Payouts and reserves | Confirmed first and ongoing payout schedule; separate tracking of old held funds |
| Testing and support | Tested payment, refund, subscription and reconciliation; support owner and fallback plan |
Requirements depend on each provider. Stripe documentation illustrates export restrictions; it is not an integration promise or an identification of our partner.
| Event | Question for your provider |
|---|---|
| First payout | What initial account checks or waiting period apply to this account? |
| Settlement and payout | When does the balance become available and when is it sent to the bank? |
| Availability and holds | What bank delays, reserves, cutoff times or holds can apply? |
Every processor quotes a rate. What decides your bill is how that rate is applied to the hundreds of different card types your customers carry.
| Model | How it bills | Who it fits | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Flat rate | A quoted percentage and any per-transaction fee, with rates that may differ by payment channel | Businesses that value a predictable rate and straightforward billing | Compare the total at your own card mix, volume and average ticket. Volume alone does not establish which model costs less |
| Tiered | Transactions fall into pricing tiers under the provider's qualification rules | Businesses whose written proposal clearly explains each tier | Ask what moves a payment to a higher-priced tier and compare the actual statement, not only the lowest advertised rate |
| Interchange-plus | Interchange and network charges plus a separately disclosed processor markup | Businesses that want to separate underlying card costs from provider charges | Check the markup, monthly fees and gateway charges. This model does not automatically cost less than flat rate |
| Surcharge or dual pricing | A credit-card surcharge or separately displayed cash and card prices, depending on the arrangement | Businesses evaluating customer-facing prices with their acquiring provider | These arrangements have different requirements. Visa prohibits surcharges on debit and prepaid cards; network and applicable legal requirements must be checked |
Compare all fees using the same sales volume and payment mix. No pricing model guarantees savings. Confirm any surcharge or cash-discount setup with your acquirer before using it.
Use this acceptance plan with the proposed provider and whoever maintains your store. A cheaper quote does not resolve an untested refund, a duplicate subscription or an unknown first deposit. Record the result, date and responsible person for every workflow you actually use. These are questions to resolve, not features promised by Qualified Commercial.
List your platform and plan, gateway, checkout version, invoice software, accounting edition, terminal models and recurring-billing tools. Ask the proposal to name supported connections, installation and support owners, connector costs and security responsibilities. Include your normal ticket, largest routine order, sales channels and currencies so the tests reflect your business. Do not infer compatibility from a familiar brand name.
| Workflow | Result to document | Pause the switch if |
|---|---|---|
| Checkout and invoices | In the provider's approved test environment, check success, decline, authentication when required, receipt and order status. Confirm a retry does not create two paid orders. | A failed payment looks paid, or a retry duplicates an order. |
| Refunds and cancellations | Confirm full and partial refunds, voids if supported, original transaction lookup, customer notice, fee treatment and the account that funds the refund. | The operator cannot locate or refund an old sale through the agreed process. |
| Recurring billing | Map each active schedule to one billing owner, next charge date, amount and cancellation status. Confirm transfer exclusions and rebuild only the schedules that need it. | Both systems can bill the same customer, or no owner can verify the next charge. |
| Accounting and reporting | Trace one order identifier through payment, applicable tax, refund, fees and accounting entry. Confirm the connector does not post the same sale twice. | The sale is duplicated or the bookkeeper cannot explain an unmatched entry. |
| Payouts and ongoing support | Get account-specific first and ongoing payout terms, bank availability, reserve conditions, support contact and escalation owner in writing. | Payroll depends on an unconfirmed deposit or no one owns launch support. |
Use the provider's documented test tools and test credentials. Stripe, for example, documents simulated successes, declines and authentication, and prohibits testing in live mode with real payment details. Follow your actual provider's rules. A simulated success does not establish bank availability; confirm the real account's payout conditions separately. Do not send customer card numbers, security codes, API keys or passwords to our form or secure room.
Illustrative planning example: your old billing list has 120 active schedules. The migration report maps 118, leaving two unresolved. Do not treat the count as complete or simply recreate all 120. Resolve the two exceptions, check next charge dates and cancellation status, and assign exactly one system to each future charge. A card-data transfer is not proof that recurring schedules transferred. This is a control example, not a statement about any supported integration.
Before cancelling, ask the current provider about notice, renewal, termination, equipment leases, outstanding refunds, disputes, reserves, final fees and report access. Ask how long access remains available and what can still be done after closure. Export permitted business reports before losing access. The new provider does not automatically release an old reserve or take over an old dispute.
Name who can pause a launch and how orders will be handled while an issue is resolved. A fallback must use an approved payment workflow; do not collect card details by email or charge a customer twice. Record when recurring billing moves, who disables the old schedules and who checks the first accounting entries and deposits. If costs, compatibility or account terms remain unresolved, the review can end with a decision to defer or decline the switch.
Start with contact details below. In your separate secure room, provide the requested statement, separately billed gateway or platform costs, contract and a list of unresolved workflows. The desk can compare the written proposal with your payment mix and flag missing information. Implementation and acceptance tests must be agreed with the actual provider; requesting our review neither changes your processor nor commits you to switch.
Request an online-processing statement reviewProvider examples, not integration promises. Reviewed November 3, 2026:
These editable figures are an example, not market averages or an offer. At $30,000 a month and a $50 ticket, the example saves $80 monthly before switching costs, but costs $240 more in year one after a $1,200 transition. Replace every input with your statement and written proposal.
Enter the percentage, transaction fee and applicable other monthly costs. If using an all-in effective rate, set the transaction charge and other current costs to $0. Do not count a fee twice.
Editable assumptions, not a quote or a markup over interchange. Include expected card costs in the percentage and add charges not already included: gateway, platform, PCI, equipment, minimums, recurring, refunds or disputes. Divide annual charges by 12. With an all-in effective rate, set transaction and other costs to $0. For one-time switching, include termination, migration, setup and account overlap.
| Today | Illustrative | |
|---|---|---|
| Effective rate | 3.57% | 3.3% |
| Monthly fees | $1,070 | $990 |
| First-year cost including switching | $12,840 | $13,080 |
| Transactions / month | 600 | |
On these assumptions there is no first-year saving. Switching costs can outweigh a monthly saving. The review must show the unfavorable result in writing.
Get the written numberAssumes unchanged activity and fees. Switching is charged once in first-year and three-year totals; the monthly figure excludes it. Omitted costs change the result. Actual savings depend on your payment mix and written agreement. Not an offer.
A review can examine your current setup. It does not establish that a processing partner supports every platform, feature or device. Ask for written compatibility and pricing before accepting.
Name your platform, plan, checkout version and gateway. Confirm the proposed connection, who installs it, any platform fee for an outside processor, and who supports it. Test a payment and refund before routing live sales to the new setup.
Identify where invoices originate and how payments reconcile to your accounting records. Confirm whether the proposal supports the required link or invoice workflow. Compare available ACH charges, caps, return fees and timing rather than assuming ACH always costs less.
Confirm who owns the vault, whether payment data can transfer securely between providers, and whether subscriptions must be rebuilt. Do not assume tokens or recurring schedules move automatically. Have providers arrange any permitted transfer; do not send customer card data through our review form or room.
List phone-order needs, required verification tools, terminal models and any leases. A web gateway does not establish that an existing in-person device is compatible. Confirm replacement, setup, cancellation and ongoing support costs in writing.
Start with a full-month processing statement or payout report. Include separately billed gateway and platform fees and your current contract in the secure room when requested. The public form collects contact details only.
Send your contact details using the form below. The desk opens the existing secure room for the statement review; this request is not a processing agreement or a credit application.
In the room, share the statement, transaction count, average ticket, payment-channel mix and current software or equipment. Identify subscriptions, holds, refunds and any contract exit or lease obligations.
Check recurring costs and the first year after migration, termination, setup and overlap charges. Confirm the named integrations, payout conditions and any unresolved requirements. If the total is higher, the comparison must say so.
Accept or decline in the room. If switching, agree with the partner who tests checkout, refunds, recurring billing and reconciliation, who supports launch, and how old-account refunds and disputes will be handled before cancelling anything.
Changing providers does not release a hold at the old processor or guarantee an earlier payout. If inventory or payroll is due before confirmed deposits, map the cash gap separately. A funding review considers existing obligations, net proceeds and payment burden; projected processing savings are not available cash or a funding approval.
Request an online merchant-services statement review. The desk opens your secure room for statements and setup details, then compares the written proposal with your actual costs. No obligation to switch.
Submitting this request is not a credit application, not a processing agreement and not an obligation to switch providers.
Prefer to open the full file now? Start your file with lower card processing rates as the goal.
A few contact details to begin the conversation.
Only if the proposed gateway and processing arrangement support your exact platform and plan. Confirm checkout, plugins, accounting reconciliation and any outside-provider fees in writing. A platform name on a comparison page is not a promise of integration.
Divide total processing costs for a month by card-sales volume for that same month, then multiply by 100. Include applicable transaction, gateway, account, platform and other charges. If that effective rate already includes transaction fees, do not add those fees again in the calculator.
No. Volume alone does not establish a winner. Compare the actual card and channel mix, average ticket, percentage, transaction charges, monthly costs and contract terms. A lower percentage can be outweighed by fixed fees or switching costs.
Do not assume so. Ask for account-specific first-payout timing, settlement and payout schedules, cutoff times, reserve conditions and bank availability. New-account checks and holds can change when cash becomes usable.
Ask both providers what can transfer and who will rebuild recurring schedules. For example, Stripe documents a secure provider-to-provider card-data export with restrictions and excludes subscriptions from that export. That example does not establish compatibility with our processing partner. Never upload customer card data for a statement review.
The comparison should show the extra cost. In our editable example, $80 a month is $960 over a year, but a $1,200 switch leaves a $240 additional first-year cost. Consider the contract and operational fit as well as recurring fees; the review creates no obligation to switch.
Separate customer-entered invoice or link payments from manually keyed payments. Ask which workflow the proposal supports and what each costs, including recurring and accounting features. If ACH is available, compare its full fees and timing separately.
Start with a full-month statement or payout report, card-sales volume, transaction count and average ticket. Have separately billed gateway and platform charges, your contract, equipment details and subscription requirements ready. The desk may request more months to understand seasonality. Documents belong in the secure room, not the public contact form.
No promise of release follows from switching. Resolve the hold with the existing provider through its official support channel and written conditions. Keep track of outstanding refunds, disputes and reserves on the old account when planning a change.
Agree on provider-approved tests for checkout success and decline, retries, refunds, invoices, recurring schedules and accounting entries. Record the responsible person and unresolved results. A test payment does not prove live bank availability. Confirm account-specific payout terms separately and pause if payments duplicate or a required workflow remains unsupported.
First resolve contract notice, final fees, equipment leases, old refunds and disputes, reserves and report access with the current provider. Confirm who owns each future recurring charge and who supports launch. Use the cutover plan to document acceptance; do not assume that moving card data transfers subscriptions or that a new account takes over old obligations.
Request a free statement review. See the supported setup, recurring cost and first-year comparison in writing, then accept or decline in your secure room.
Qualified Commercial is not a payment processor. Merchant processing proposals are prepared by a processing partner and presented in your secure application room. Estimated savings are computed from the volume and effective rate shown on your own statement compared with the proposed pricing, are estimates, and depend on card mix, sales channel, average ticket and the executed agreement. Requesting a review is not a credit application and creates no obligation to switch providers.
QuickBooks and Intuit are registered trademarks of Intuit Inc. Square and Stripe are trademarks of their respective owners. Qualified Commercial is not affiliated with, sponsored by or endorsed by any of them. Third-party rates are those companies' published figures on the date shown and can change; verify current pricing with the provider.
