Catch the junk fees draining your account
Most of what drains a merchant account is not the card cost. It is a stack of small monthly fees with official names, and a surprising number of them should not be there at all.
Ask an owner what they pay to take cards and they will quote you a rate. The rate is only half of it. The other half is a stack of merchant account fees, flat monthly charges that have nothing to do with your card volume, and that is where a lot of quiet money goes. Sorting the real fees from the pure padding is easier than it looks.
Which merchant account fees are legitimate?
Some charges reflect a real cost, and a straight processor passes them through without dressing them up.
- Interchange and assessments, the per-sale cost set by the card networks. This is the bulk of any fair bill, and no one can remove it.
- A per-transaction fee, as long as it is small and clearly stated. Ours is a flat dime, and it is our only per-transaction markup.
- A yearly PCI compliance fee, billed once a year for PCI DSS validation. A real one is annual and disclosed up front. A monthly PCI charge is usually padding.
- Hardware or software you actually use, like a terminal or a gateway, when it is priced openly and not marked up to several times its cost.
Which merchant account fees are junk?
These show up with serious-sounding names, and most of them are markup that exists because few people question it. Now the plain version of each.
| Fee | Typical cost | What it really is |
|---|---|---|
| Statement fee | $5 to $15 / mo | A charge to send the bill. Almost always pure markup. |
| Monthly or service fee | $10 to $25 / mo | A fee to have the account. Often negotiable or removable. |
| Monthly PCI fee | $10 to $40 / mo | A padded monthly charge. A legitimate PCI compliance fee is annual, not monthly. |
| PCI non-compliance fee | $20 to $60 / mo | A penalty for an unfinished form. Fixable, not inevitable. |
| Batch fee | $0.10 to $0.30 each | A charge to settle the day. Adds up daily. |
| Monthly minimum | up to $25 / mo | A penalty for not paying them enough in fees. |
Common padding fees and what they typically run. Amounts vary by processor.
A PCI non-compliance fee is the one to catch first. It usually means a security questionnaire lapsed, not that anything is wrong. Finish the form and the fee should stop, often retroactively if you push.
How much do junk fees add up to?
Stack a $10 statement fee, a $20 service fee, a $30 monthly PCI charge, and a $25 monthly minimum, and you are at $85 a month before a single card runs. That is more than $1,000 a year in fees that have nothing to do with accepting payments. On a flat published-dime account, those monthly line items do not exist. The only per-transaction markup is the dime, and the one charge beyond interchange and the dime is a yearly PCI compliance fee we disclose in writing before you sign.
Want every junk fee on your statement flagged on its own line, in dollars?
Find my junk feesHow do I get junk fees removed?
- List every flat fee on your statement that is not interchange or a clearly stated per-transaction price.
- Total them and multiply by twelve, so you are arguing about the annual number, not the monthly one.
- Call and ask, line by line, what each fee is for and to have the padding removed. Some will come off just because you asked.
- If they will not move, that resistance is your answer. A processor that needs hidden fees to hit its margin will need them again at renewal.
You can win a round of this by calling. The structural fix is pricing that has no room for junk fees in the first place. When the markup is a single published dime, there is nowhere for a statement fee or a surprise monthly PCI charge to hide. The one fee beyond interchange and the dime is a yearly PCI compliance fee, and we disclose the exact amount in writing before you sign.
Questions, answered plainly
They are the charges on a merchant account beyond interchange: per-transaction fees, plus flat monthly fees like statement, service, batch, and monthly minimum fees. Interchange is a real network cost, and a yearly PCI compliance fee is a legitimate annual charge, but many of the flat monthly fees are markup that can be reduced or removed.
Usually yes. A PCI non-compliance fee typically means a security self-assessment questionnaire lapsed, not that anything is wrong. Completing the questionnaire generally stops the fee, and you can often ask for recent charges to be credited.
Statement fees, generic monthly or service fees, monthly PCI charges, batch fees, and monthly minimums are commonly padding rather than real costs. Interchange, assessments, a small clearly stated per-transaction fee, and a disclosed annual PCI compliance fee are the legitimate parts of a fair bill.
See it on your own statement
Reading about the fees is one thing. Finding yours takes about a minute. Send your last statement and a specialist sends back your effective rate and your markup, next to a dime.
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