What every card processor charges, in one table.

The price is public. The statement is not.

A rate is one line of a statement that runs to several pages, and the difference between what the rate says a month should cost and what the statement says it did cost is never printed as a total. It sits in lines like these, which no price list shows and which the review names, one by one, with the arithmetic behind each:

• Tier downgrades

  A "qualified" rate on the contract, and a third of the volume billed at "non-qualified" for reasons the statement does not give.

• Fees named after rules

  PCI, regulatory, compliance, network access: some are genuine pass-throughs, some are margin with an official name. The line does not say which.

• Rate creep

  A markup that was fair at signing and has moved twice since, a fraction of a point at a time, with a notice printed on page six.

• Equipment and minimums

  A terminal lease that has outlived the terminal, and a monthly minimum billed on a month that beat it.

See all of these on one statement, line by line. The review starts with three figures and carries no retainer. Step one is the comparison; the lines and the wording to send follow once you sign, and you pay a share of what you recover, or nothing.

Not listed

The processors with no number are where the review matters

Check your card rate Or send one statement

The arithmetic, so it can be checked

1. One business for every row.

   $30,000 in monthly card sales at a $40 average ticket is 750 transactions. Monthly cost is volume times the percentage, plus 750 times the per-transaction fee. Square Free: $30,000 × 2.60% is $780, plus 750 × 15¢ is $112.50, which is $892.50, or 2.98% all in.

2. A year is twelve of that month.

   The last column is the monthly figure times twelve. Most businesses are seasonal and no two months match, so it is a scale, not a forecast.

3. Interchange-plus rows are converted, and the assumption is stated.

   Helcim publishes its margin, not an all-in rate, which is the more honest way to price and the only kind that can be audited line by line. To place it in the table, typical card-present interchange and assessments, 2.04% together, are added to its 0.40% margin. A business whose card mix runs heavier on rewards or corporate cards would pay more than the 2.64% shown, on Helcim and on every interchange-plus account.

4. Rows marked "reported" are not published by the processor.

   Toast removed a fixed rate from its pricing page; the figures shown are what its representatives commonly quote single-location businesses, as reported by posusa.com in June 2026. Clover does not display pricing without scripting, and most Clover accounts are sold through banks and resellers who set their own terms; the figures shown are Clover's direct plans as reported by koronapos.com in July 2026. A quoted rate is a starting point, not a price list.

5. What is left out, on purpose.

   Monthly software fees, hardware, American Express, keyed-in and online rates, chargeback fees, and the surcharges most processors add for international cards. All are real costs; none is the in-person rate, which is the thing this table compares.

6. Measured rates will replace published ones.

   As statements are reviewed, this table gains a column: the all-in rate actually observed on statements for each processor, as a median, from numbers only and never from a named account. That column appears when there is enough behind it to be honest, and not before.

Every figure, and where it was read

Processors change published pricing without notice. If a figure here is out of date, email contact@dekalos.com with the page it should be read from, and it will be corrected and dated.