Buying Payments

Launching soon? Here's the short answer

If you're opening a new business or online store and just need to accept cards next month: sign up with an aggregator - Stripe, Braintree or Square for most businesses, Shopify Payments if you're on Shopify. All are no monthly fee and no contract.

Published rates, verified against each vendor's own pricing page on 2026-08-02:

	Online	In person
Braintree	2.89% + $0.29	Not separately published
Square	3.3% + 30c (Free plan), 2.9% + 30c (Plus and Premium)	2.6% + 15c (Free plan)
Stripe	2.9% + 30c domestic	Terminal 2.7% + 5c
Helcim	Interchange + 0.50% + 25c, $0/month	Interchange + 0.40% + 8c, $0/month

At your starting volume, none of these will beat the others by enough to matter, and you can switch later once you have real numbers. The one exception worth knowing on day one: if you're taking cards in person and your customers pay mostly with debit and ordinary consumer credit, Helcim's published interchange-plus rate is cheaper than Square's flat rate on almost every sale, and it also charges $0 a month. There's no volume you have to reach first.

Then set it up right in your first week: Stripe first week · Square first week · Shopify first week

The rest of this section is for when you have volume worth negotiating over - roughly $50k/month and up.

TL;DR

Overpaying is the default: 30-50 basis points separate a good deal from a bad one, costing $1,500-$2,500/year on $500k volume
All-in cost is the only real number: a clean 2.5% all-in beats a quoted 2.2% plus seven junk fees
Volume dictates your stack: under $100k/mo use aggregators, $100k-$1M/mo negotiate direct, over $1M/mo require custom pricing and token portability
Contract terms beat pricing: early termination fees, reserves, and auto-renewals cost more than basis points
If you're paying over 2.9% all-in above $50k/mo, pull 3 months of statements and get one competitive bid

Most SMBs overpay for payments because they don't know what questions to ask. The difference between a good processor deal and a bad one is 30-50 basis points. On $500k/year, that's $1,500-$2,500 walking out the door.

What Matters

All-in cost, not quoted rate. The rate they advertise isn't the rate you pay.
Contract terms, not just pricing. Early termination fees, reserves, and auto-renewals hurt more than basis points.
Volume-appropriate stack. What works at $20k/mo is wrong at $200k/mo.
Exit strategy. Can you leave with your tokens? If not, you're locked in.
Support quality. When money stops moving, response time matters.

Buying Payments Topics

Popular in This Section

Processor Selection - The 3-bid method and volume-based recommendations
Contracts - Fee breakdowns, contract gotchas, negotiation tactics
Underwriting - Approval process and documentation needed

Quick Reference: Volume Recommendations

Volume	Recommendation	Focus
Under $100k/mo	Aggregators (Stripe, Braintree, Square) for simplicity, or Helcim for the lowest published cost in person	Simplicity over optimization, unless your card mix is debit-heavy
$100k-$1M/mo	Shop for rates, consider direct. Benchmark every bid against Helcim's published band for your volume	Negotiate reserves and terms
Over $1M/mo	Custom pricing, redundancy	Token portability required

Square's own page says custom pricing conversations start above $250,000 a year, or about $21K/month, so don't wait for $1M to ask.

Quick Reference: Legitimate vs Junk Fees

Legitimate	Junk (Negotiate Away)
Interchange (about 0.9% in person, 1.4% online, blended)	PCI compliance fee
Network assessments (not published, assumed 0.14%)	Batch fee
Processor markup (0.1-0.5%)	Statement fee
	Annual fee
	Minimum monthly fee

Interchange is a blend, not a rate. Individual cards run from 0.05% + $0.21 on regulated debit to 3.15% + $0.10 on a non-qualified penalty rate, per Visa's US schedule of 18 April 2026 and Mastercard's of 17 April 2026. The blend and its derivation.

Reality check: A processor with a clean 2.5% all-in is often cheaper than one quoting 2.2% plus seven line-item fees.

You have a published benchmark for the junk column. Helcim charges $0 monthly, and no setup, PCI, cancellation or statement fees, with the interchange markup published band by band (verified 2026-08-02). When an ISO tells you a PCI fee or a statement fee is standard, that's the counterexample.

The $50k/mo Exit Test

Every 6 months, ask yourself:

What's my all-in effective rate?
Is my current processor still the best fit for my volume?
Have I outgrown my current contract terms?
Could I leave if I wanted to? (Token portability)

If you're paying more than 2.9% all-in above $50k/mo, you're likely overpaying.

Test to Run

2-week exercise:

Pull your last 3 months of statements
Calculate your true all-in rate: (Total fees / Total volume)
Get one competitive bid
Compare

Success criteria: You either confirm you're well-priced, or you find savings worth pursuing.

Next Steps

Just picked a processor?

Stripe first week → Day-by-day setup checklist
Square first week → Day-by-day setup checklist
Shopify first week → Day-by-day setup checklist

Shopping for a processor?

Use the 3-bid method → Get three competitive quotes
Calculate your all-in effective rate → Compare apples to apples
Review contract terms before pricing → Termination fees matter more than basis points

Already have a processor?

Audit your current effective rate → Are you paying what you expected?
Review your contract terms → When does it renew? ETF clause?
Check processor management → Ongoing optimization

What Matters​

Buying Payments Topics​

Popular in This Section​

Quick Reference: Volume Recommendations​

Quick Reference: Legitimate vs Junk Fees​

The $50k/mo Exit Test​

Test to Run​

Next Steps​

See Also​