Merchant fees · PW-MF/INDEX
Are you overpaying on credit card processing fees?
The short answer
One number tells you: the processor markup above interchange. Compute your effective rate (total fees ÷ card volume), subtract the pass-through cost everyone pays (interchange + network assessments), and what’s left is your processor’s own price — the only part you can negotiate.
Method current as read June 24, 2026. Typical ranges below are commonly observed, not a quote — read your own statement.
We do the diagnosis free and take no commission or affiliate fees from any processor — so the number you get isn’t steered toward a vendor. You can verify every figure yourself.
The method · three steps
How a statement audit actually works
The whole job is separating the cost no one can change from the price your processor chose. Three steps, and the third is the one that matters.
Find your effective rate
Total fees ÷ total card volume. One honest percent that ignores the pricing model and every add-on line. It is where every audit starts.
Strip out the pass-through cost
Interchange (the bank’s wholesale fee) and network assessments use the same published schedules for every processor and cannot be negotiated. Subtract them and the floor is gone.
Read the processor markup
What is left above the floor is your processor’s actual price — the only negotiable layer, and the figure almost no statement shows you. That number tells you whether you are overpaying.
Tools & references
Read your own statement
Common questions
Merchant fees — questions
How do I know if I’m overpaying on credit card processing?
Compute your effective rate (total fees ÷ total card volume), then subtract the pass-through cost — interchange and network assessments, which are the same for every processor. What remains is the processor markup, the only negotiable layer. A competitive markup for a small business is often around 0.10%–0.50% plus a few cents per transaction, as read June 2026; well above that suggests room to negotiate. Read your own statement to confirm.
What does PriceWorld charge, and do you take a commission from processors?
The diagnosis — reading your statement and isolating the markup — is free. The fix (a negotiation kit with scripts and benchmarks) is a flat fee. We take no commission or referral fee from any processor, ever, so the advice is not steered toward a vendor. You can verify every number yourself.
Can you actually lower interchange?
No — and anyone who claims to is repricing the markup, not interchange. Interchange is set by Visa and Mastercard and paid to the card-issuing bank; network assessments are set by the networks. Those are pass-through costs. The negotiable money is the processor’s markup on top, plus avoidable add-ons like PCI non-compliance fees, statement fees, and equipment leases.