Card processing
One sale.
Three hands in it.
A $40.00 card sale at an illustrative steakhouse doing $350,000 a month. Here is who takes what, and why $41,460 a year of it didn't need to go.
MARLOWE'S STEAKHOUSE
SALE 1 OF 8,750
MARCH 2026
CARD SALE$40.00
APPROVED
Where the $40.00 goes
$38.69reaches the restaurant
Card
The customer taps.
Card's bank
73.6¢
Interchange. Set by Visa and Mastercard, paid to the card's bank. The same at every processor.
Visa / Mastercard
8¢
Assessments. The networks' own fee. Also fixed.
Processor
44.4¢
Its markup. A fair markup, as DEKALOS assumes it, is near 10.4¢ here.
Two “official” fees
2.1¢ + 3.4¢
PCI and batch. Also the processor's.
$1.31 of every sale left. 39.5¢ of it didn't need to. Across 8,750 sales: $3,455.00 a month. $41,460.00 a year.
Under the loupe
The fine print, at full size.
PCI non-compliance fee · $29.95
Charged, in principle, because a card security questionnaire was not completed this year. Sometimes that is exactly what happened, and completing it ends the charge.
Regulatory compliance fee · $9.95
Regulation does not charge a fee. A processor does, and names it after regulation.
Terminal rental · $45.00
The processor's, or its leasing company's For a terminal this business has had since 2022, at $45 a month, which is now more than the terminal cost. Some equipment leases run for a fixed term and cannot be cancelled early; some have quietly gone month to month; some were never separate from the processing agreement at all.
From the illustrative tiered statement, a different illustrative business. Read it line by line.
The price board
Published prices, on one $40.00 sale.
PROCESSORPUBLISHED PRICEON $40.00
- PayPal Zettle2.29% + 9¢$1.01
- Clover · counter-service2.30% + 10¢ *$1.02
- Helcim · under $50,000/mointerchange + 0.40% + 8¢varies
- Square · Premium2.40% + 15¢$1.11
- Stripe Terminal2.70% + 5¢$1.13
- SpotOn · POS Essentials2.45% + 15¢$1.13
- Clover · full-service2.60% + 10¢ *$1.14
- Lightspeed · Starter2.60% + 10¢$1.14
- Toast · paid2.49% + 15¢ *$1.15
- Square · Plus2.50% + 15¢$1.15
- Square · Free2.60% + 15¢$1.19
- SpotOn · All-In2.79% + 20¢$1.32
- Toast · Starter Kit2.99% + 15¢ *$1.35
- MARLOWE'S STEAKHOUSE, THIS STATEMENT3.29% all in$1.31
- MARLOWE'S STEAKHOUSE, AFTER REVIEW2.30% all in$0.92
October 2026, from each company's pricing page, or as reported where marked *. Published card rates before any monthly fees. Marlowe's includes interchange and its PCI and batch fees: every fee on its statement, divided by its sales. DEKALOS is not affiliated with any company listed. The Rate Index
$187,000,000,000
What US businesses paid to take cards in 2024. Nilson Report
What DEKALOS does
WORKING PAPER · CARD PROCESSING
Received: one monthly statement.
Read: every line, against published prices.
Returned: what to ask your processor, word for word.
Nothing up front on a one-off review. The fee is 35% of 12 months of the saving, once; see Pricing.
MARLOWE'S STEAKHOUSE
SALE 1 OF 8,750
SALE$40.00
DEPOSITED$38.69
AFTER REVIEW$39.08
A YEAR+$41,460.00
Keep the $41,460.
39.5¢ a sale. $3,455.00 a month. On one illustrative steakhouse's statement. Send yours.