Merchant statement effective rate calculator
Enter one month of card volume and fees to see the effective rate, the annual cost, and what a proposed price could save. The math runs in your browser and nothing you type is sent anywhere.
Your estimate
Example numbers. Replace them with your own.
About $250 a month. Uses the proposed effective rate as the all-in cost.
Estimates only. Results come from the numbers you enter and the assumptions shown. They are not a quote, an offer or a guarantee of savings. Real costs depend on card mix, ticket size, monthly fixed fees and the processor's terms.
What the full statement analysis adds.
Pricing model fingerprinting
Tiered, flat-rate, interchange-plus, cash discount, surcharge or bill-back, identified from the line items.
Downgrade detection
Plus an estimate of how much of their volume is debit being billed at rewards-card pricing.
A generated script
An opener, the problems in their own dollars, a trial close and prewritten objection handlers.
No credit card required. A statement analysis uses 1 credit.
Effective rate vs. interchange-plus, explained
Your effective rate puts everything a merchant pays for card processing into one number: total fees for the month divided by total card volume. Add every line on the statement (discount rate, interchange, assessments, per-transaction fees, monthly and PCI fees) and divide by the volume processed. A merchant who processed $50,000 and paid $1,500 has a 3.00% effective rate, or $18,000 a year.
Why the quoted rate isn't the number to compare
A quote like "2.6% + 10¢" covers only part of the bill. Statement, gateway, PCI, batch and monthly fees sit outside it and change what the merchant really pays. Comparing effective rates puts different pricing structures on the same footing. For example, on $50,000 of volume across 1,000 transactions, a "2.6% + 10¢" quote costs $1,300 plus $100. Add a $25 monthly fee and a $10 PCI fee and the month totals $1,435, an effective rate of 2.87%.
What interchange-plus changes
Interchange-plus statements separate three things: interchange, which the card networks set and the issuing bank receives; network assessments; and the processor's markup, usually shown as basis points plus a per-transaction fee. Interchange and assessments generally pass through at the same rates whichever processor is used, so the markup is the negotiable part. Flat-rate and tiered pricing bundle those pieces together, which makes the processor's share harder to see.
How to use the calculator
Enter volume and fees from one month's statement to see the effective rate. To test a proposal, add either a proposed effective rate or a markup in basis points plus a per-transaction fee. With markup, the calculator adds an interchange and network-fee estimate, because markup alone isn't a total cost. Card mix, average ticket and monthly fixed fees move the real number, so treat the result as the start of a conversation.
Calculator FAQ
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