Insights
Asking better questions about what payments cost
No gated whitepapers. The analysis a merchant needs in order to argue with a processor, published in full.
Most published material about merchant services exists to generate a lead rather than to inform a decision, which is why so much of it is vague about the one number that matters. These pieces go the other way: they show the arithmetic, name the specific mechanisms that move your effective rate, and tell you what to ask a processor in order to find out whether the relationship survives daylight. Nothing here is gated, and nothing requires you to talk to us first.
How to read a merchant statement in eleven minutes
Effective rate is the only number that matters, and almost no statement prints it. Here is how to derive it, and the four places margin is usually buried.
Read the articleZero-cost processing is a compliance program, not a pricing trick
Cash discount and surcharge are both legal in most of the United States. The programs that get shut down fail on disclosure, ceilings, or debit.
Read the articleUnderwriting · 8 min readWhy acquirers decline you, and what to put in the file instead
A high-risk decline is rarely about your business. It is about which of five risks your file failed to address.
Read the articleTell us how your business actually runs.
A scoping conversation costs nothing and ends with a straight answer on whether a custom build is worth it — and what your card acceptance should cost.