Credit Card Processing
Fee Calculator

It depends on your pricing model, but a well-negotiated interchange-plus account typically lands between 1.5% and 2.5% effective rate for most in-person retail and service businesses. Flat-rate processors usually run 2.6%–3.5% because they're pricing in a margin across every card type, including the cheapest debit swipes. If your effective rate is above 3%, there's almost always room to improve.

Your effective rate is your total processing cost divided by your gross card volume — it's the only number that's comparable across pricing models. A contract might advertise a low "qualified rate," but if most of your transactions downgrade to mid- or non-qualified tiers, your real effective rate can be much higher. See our full breakdown in the glossary: Effective Rate.

Interchange-plus passes the card network's interchange fee through at cost and adds one transparent markup — you can verify every line. Tiered pricing bundles interchange and markup into "qualified," "mid-qualified," and "non-qualified" buckets your processor controls, with no way to verify the split. Flat-rate pricing charges one blended rate on every transaction, which is simple but usually the most expensive option once you're past a few thousand dollars a month. We cover this in more detail in Flat Rate vs. Interchange-Plus Fees.

Card-not-present transactions — online, phone, or mail orders — carry higher interchange rates than in-person swipes because the card network can't verify the physical card, which means more fraud risk. That's why this calculator asks whether your sales are in-person, online, or mixed, and why an e-commerce business will typically see a higher effective rate than an identical-volume retail store.

They're a close estimate based on current interchange benchmarks for your industry, volume, and channel mix — not a guess, but not a substitute for reading your actual statement either. Processors bury markup in dozens of line items, and the only way to get an exact number is a real audit of your statement. That audit is free and usually takes about 15 minutes: Get Your Free Audit.

It varies by volume and current pricing model, but FT5 clients average 30–60% lower markup after we take their statement to 10+ tier-1 processors and let them bid blind against each other. On the FinTech 5 homepage you can see real client numbers — one retail chain found $18,400 a year in fees they didn't know they were paying.

No. This calculator is free with no signup, and the full statement audit is free too — you're never obligated to switch. If your current rate is already competitive, we'll tell you that instead of manufacturing a reason to move you.