How to Negotiate Lower Credit Card Processing Fees

What gives you bargaining power

Processors price accounts on what they expect to earn and what they expect to lose. You have more room to negotiate when:

• Your monthly volume is steady or growing.
• Your chargebacks and refunds are low.
• You have been in business, and with the processor, for a while.
• Your average ticket is large, so per-transaction fees are a small part of your cost.
• You have a written quote from another processor.
• Your contract is near its end or its renewal window, so leaving is cheap.

None of these is required. A small business with modest volume can still get fees removed and pricing changed by asking clearly.

Before you call: gather the numbers

1. Three recent statements. Our guide on how to read a merchant statement shows where to find what you need.
2. Your effective rate. Total fees divided by total card sales across the three months. See our guide to calculating your effective rate.
3. Your markup. On interchange-plus pricing, subtract interchange and network fees from total fees. On tiered or flat-rate pricing, note your effective rate and the share of sales in each tier.
4. A yearly total of add-on fees. Statement, batch, annual, PCI, monthly minimum, and any others. Our list of statement fees worth questioning helps.
5. Your contract terms. Term end date, renewal window, and early termination fee.
6. A competing written quote. Ask another processor to price your actual statements at interchange-plus.

What to ask for

Make specific requests, in this order:

1. Interchange-plus pricing, if you are on tiered or flat-rate pricing.
2. A specific markup. For example: interchange plus 0.25% and 10 cents per transaction. Use your competing quote as the reference.
3. Removal of named fees. List them: statement fee, annual fee, PCI program fee, monthly minimum, and any fee you cannot explain.
4. A credit for recent penalties, such as PCI non-compliance fees, once your questionnaire is complete.
5. Price protection. A commitment that your markup will not change for a set period, often twelve months.
6. Better exit terms. A waived or reduced early termination fee, or a move to month-to-month terms.

You may not get everything. Prioritize the items worth the most in dollars per year.

A call script

Ask for the retention or pricing team if the first representative cannot change pricing. Then keep it short:

If the answer is no, ask what they can offer and request it in writing. If the offer falls short, say you will compare it with the quote you have and call back. Many processors improve their offer on the second call.

Get it in writing, then check

Ask for an email or a revised pricing schedule that lists the new markup and every fee that changed. Then compare your next three statements against it. Look for:

• The new markup on the interchange-plus lines.
• The removed fees staying gone.
• New fees that appeared at the same time. A lower markup paired with a new monthly fee can cancel out the savings.

If something does not match, forward the written confirmation and ask for a correction and a credit.

When switching is the better move

Sometimes the right answer is to leave:

• Your processor will not offer interchange-plus pricing.
• Your markup stays far above what competing quotes offer.
• Fees you were told would be removed keep returning.
• Your contract is ending, so leaving costs little.

Before you switch, read our guide to early termination fees and check whether any terminal you use is leased, since a lease continues after you close the account.

Common mistakes

• Negotiating the qualified rate on tiered pricing. A lower qualified rate can leave most of your sales in expensive tiers. Ask to change the pricing model instead.
• Accepting a verbal promise. Without written terms, changes are hard to enforce.
• Ignoring the statement message box. Processors announce price changes there, sometimes a year after a negotiation.
• Switching for a teaser rate. Compare total monthly cost on your real card mix, including every fee, before moving.