Cheapest Card Processing for Small Business

On our $25,000-a-month basket the total ranged from about $658 to $860 a month once software was included. Flat-rate providers like Square and Stripe charge 2.6%–2.9% plus a fixed amount per transaction with no monthly fee; interchange-plus providers like Helcim and Stax can beat them at higher volumes but add a monthly cost. The crossover is usually somewhere between $10,000 and $25,000 a month, which is exactly why we priced at $25,000.

No. Square, Clover (bought directly), Helcim, Stripe and Toast all offer month-to-month terms. Long contracts with early-termination fees still exist, mostly through independent sales agents reselling merchant accounts. If a rep will not put the rate, the monthly fees and the cancellation terms in writing before you sign, that is your answer.

We tested this. Square, Clover and Toast kept taking card payments offline and settled them when the connection returned, with a per-transaction cap and the risk of a declined card sitting with you. Stripe Terminal and Shopify POS stopped. For a restaurant or a shop, offline mode is not a nice-to-have.

We price each against the same trading pattern — $25,000 a month, 900 transactions, $28 average, all card-present — adding software, hardware amortised over three years and any monthly minimum. We set up the same product catalogue, run a simulated internet outage on each terminal, time a refund and an end-of-day report, and read the merchant agreement for contract length, termination fees and fund-holding clauses.