How to Lower Credit Card Processing Fees in 2026: 7 Moves With the Math

A small business can cut card processing costs by about a sixth without switching providers: on Square Free, a $20,000 card month drops from $626.60 to $516.00 (our arithmetic) when typed-in cards are tapped instead and large invoices are paid by bank transfer, using rates read on Square's fee page on October 30, 2026. The bigger savings come from how customers pay, not from haggling over the headline rate.

FinanceRadar data: all 10 flat-rate payment products in our payment processing fee statistics that publish a keyed-in rate charge a higher percentage when a card number is typed than when the card is tapped or dipped, based on rates read on each provider's page on October 27, 2026. That gap is the first place to look on any statement.

Rates read on Square's fee article, SumUp's US pricing page and Authorize.net's pricing page on October 30, 2026. Savings are our arithmetic on the worked month below.

The month we priced

Our example business takes $20,000 a month in card payments on Square Free, the plan with no monthly fee. It runs 350 tapped or dipped sales at a $40 average ($14,000), 50 phone orders where staff type the card number ($2,000), and two $2,000 invoices that clients pay by card ($4,000).

That bill works out to 3.13% of sales, by our arithmetic. Each move below starts from this month, so you can see which one moves the total and which ones barely register. For how interchange, network assessments and the processor's margin stack up inside any rate, read our explainer on what credit card processing fees are.

1. Get the card tapped or dipped, not typed

A typed card number is the most expensive way to take a card in person. Square charges 3.5% + 15¢ for manual entry or a card on file on every plan, against 2.6% + 15¢ for a tap, dip or swipe on Square Free. SumUp's gap is similar: 2.6% + 10¢ in person against 3.5% + 15¢ for online or manually entered cards.

In our month, moving the 50 phone orders to a tap at pickup cuts their cost from $77.50 to $59.50, a saving of $18.00 a month by our arithmetic. That is small in dollars because keyed sales are only a tenth of volume here. A business that keys a third of its sales, such as a contractor taking cards over the phone, pays the 0.9-point gap on far more money.

The practical fixes: send a payment link instead of reading out a card number when the customer is remote, or ask the customer to tap at delivery. A payment link is billed at Square Free's online rate, which carries a bigger fixed fee, so on a $40 sale the link costs $1.62 against $1.55 keyed. The link wins only on larger tickets, from about $75 by our arithmetic, so for small phone orders the tap at pickup is the real saving.

2. Move large invoices from cards to bank transfer

This is the biggest single saving in our example. Square Free charges 3.3% + 30¢ when a client pays an invoice by card, but 1% with a $1 minimum when the client pays the same invoice by ACH bank transfer, per Square's fee article. On two $2,000 invoices, card payment costs $132.60 and ACH costs $40.00, a saving of $92.60 a month.

Two plan details change the math. On Square Plus and Square Premium, ACH through an invoice is capped at $10 per payment, while Square Free's invoice ACH rate has no cap. And Square charges $0 for ACH payments deposited into a Square Checking account, on all three plans. A business willing to keep its deposits there would pay nothing on those two invoices.

Authorize.net offers bank payments too, through its eCheck.Net add-on at 0.75% per transaction. Read the fine print first: its fee table lists a $10 eCheck.Net minimum monthly fee and a $3 fee for each returned eCheck. A business with one small invoice a month would pay the $10 minimum, not 0.75%.

Bank transfer is slower and some clients refuse it. For card-loving clients, keep the card option open and put the ACH option first on the invoice. Our payment app fee comparison covers what clients pay when they settle through Venmo, Cash App, PayPal or Zelle instead.

3. Pick a fixed fee that fits your average sale

The cents part of a rate matters more than the percentage on small sales. Square Free and SumUp both charge 2.6% in person, but Square adds 15¢ and SumUp adds 10¢. On a $5 coffee, that is 28¢ at Square against 23¢ at SumUp, or 5.6% against 4.6% of the sale.

At our $40 average, the gap is smaller: 400 in-person sales cost $476.00 a month on Square Free and $456.00 on SumUp, a $20.00 difference by our arithmetic. A shop selling $8 items would see a much wider gap, because the fixed cents are charged on every sale regardless of size.

The trade-off is the online side. SumUp charges its 3.5% keyed rate on every online card too, while Square Free's online rate carries a smaller percentage but twice the fixed fee. A business with heavy online sales should price both channels before moving, because on online sales above about $75, SumUp's higher percentage outweighs Square's larger fixed fee, by our arithmetic. SumUp's paid POS plans ($49 a month for POS Plus, from $99 for SumUp POS) are sold for extra POS features, and its US pricing page shows one set of card rates for all of them. Our credit card processing rankings compare the in-person and online rates of every processor we track side by side.

4. Run the break-even before you pay for a lower rate

A paid plan lowers the rate but adds a fixed monthly fee, so it only pays above a certain volume. Square Plus costs $49 a month per location and charges 2.5% + 15¢ in person; Square Premium costs $149 a month per location and charges 2.4% + 15¢, per Square's pricing page.

The break-even is the monthly fee divided by the rate cut. By our arithmetic:

Our example month sits well below every in-person threshold, so Plus would cost more there. The exception is the invoice business: with Plus capping invoice ACH, a single $5,000 ACH invoice costs $10 instead of $50 on Free, so two such invoices a month save $80 and cover the $49 fee by themselves. Plus and Premium also carry software features (text marketing credits, for example), so judge them on what you would use, not on the rate alone.

5. Stop paying for a gateway you do not need

Authorize.net's All-in-one plan costs $25 a month plus 2.9% + 30¢ per transaction, and its Gateway only plan costs $25 a month plus 10¢ per transaction and a 10¢ daily batch fee, per its pricing page. Square's online API charges the same percentage and fixed fee with no monthly fee on Square Free, so for a seller who only needs a checkout the subscription is pure overhead: $300 a year, by our arithmetic.

The picture changes against Square's own online store, where Square Free's percentage is 0.4 point higher. Authorize.net's lower rate covers its monthly fee once online card sales pass $6,250 a month, by our arithmetic. Above that line, the gateway is the cheaper option; below it, the free plan is.

Authorize.net's fee list does carry some good news for smaller sellers: no setup fee, no credit card monthly minimum and a $0 chargeback fee at the gateway level. The Gateway only plan fits a business that already has a merchant account with a bank, and the daily batch fee adds up to about $3 a month if you settle every day. Our Authorize.net fee page lists the rest of its charges.

6. Ask for custom pricing once volume is real

Published flat rates are the starting point for small sellers, not the floor. Square says on both its pricing page and its fee article that businesses processing over $250,000 a year can contact its sales team about custom processing rates. That threshold equals about $20,833 a month, by our arithmetic, so our example business is right at the edge.

Square does not publish what a custom rate looks like, and no figure should be assumed in advance. Go into the call with your last few statements, your average ticket and your split between tapped, keyed and online payments. Those three numbers are what a processor prices on. Our POS system rankings and the guide to what a POS system costs a month help if a custom quote comes bundled with new hardware or software.

7. Pass part of the cost on, within the card network rules

A surcharge moves the fee to the customer instead of lowering it, and Visa's rules are strict. Its US merchant surcharge Q&A says a US merchant may surcharge credit cards only, never debit or prepaid cards. The surcharge cannot exceed the lower of 3% or the merchant's own discount rate for that card.

Visa also requires notice to your acquirer (the processor) at least 30 days before you start, a disclosure at the point of entry and the point of sale, and the surcharge shown as its own line on every receipt. State law can rule it out: as of February 15, 2024, Visa understood that Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Oklahoma and Puerto Rico prohibit surcharging and that Colorado, Minnesota, New Jersey and New York set conditions, and it warns its list may contain errors. Check your state's current law before you start.

A cash discount is the alternative Visa allows: the posted price is the card price, and a customer who pays another way gets a discount. The final card total must not be built by adding a fee at checkout, or Visa may treat it as a surcharge. Either route costs some goodwill, so test it on a slice of sales before rolling it out. Visa's regulations and fees page links the signage samples.

The month after the first two moves

Moves 1 and 2 need no new provider, no contract and no subscription. Applied together to our example:

The bill falls by $110.60 a month, or $1,327.20 a year, and the effective rate falls from 3.13% to 2.58%, all by our arithmetic. Depositing those ACH payments into Square Checking would take the invoice line to $0 and the total to $476.00.

Fees that quietly undo the savings

Several charges sit outside the headline rate and can erase a saving made elsewhere.

• International cards. Square adds 1.5% to any card issued outside the United States, on every plan and channel.
• Buy now, pay later. Afterpay through Square costs 6% + 30¢, more than double a tap.
• Gift card loads. Square Free and Plus charge a 2.5% load fee when a gift card is loaded; Premium charges 0%.
• eCheck minimums and returns. Authorize.net's eCheck.Net monthly minimum and $3 returned item fee hit low-volume users hardest.

If a processor's own rates have changed since you signed up, your statement is the place it shows first. Our Square Payments fee page and SumUp POS page keep each provider's current lineup.

What changed at Square, and when

Square's in-person rate has risen once in the period we checked. Its fee article listed 2.6% + 10¢ for tapped, dipped and swiped cards in the January 15, 2025 snapshot and 2.6% + 15¢ in the March 6, 2025 snapshot. On 400 sales a month, that 5¢ step costs $20.00 more, by our arithmetic.

The plan structure changed later in 2025. The October 3, 2025 snapshot still listed one set of rates by payment type, while the November 12, 2025 snapshot shows the Square Free, Plus and Premium tiers with their own rates. Sellers on older subscriptions are on legacy plans, and Square says their rates may differ, so check the Pricing and subscriptions page in your Square Dashboard.

How we compared

We read Square's fee article and pricing page, SumUp's US pricing page, Authorize.net's pricing page and Visa's surcharge Q&A on October 30, 2026, and recorded every rate with its unit. Monthly costs are our arithmetic on those printed rates for one example business ($20,000 a month, $40 average sale), and they leave out hardware, refunds, chargebacks and taxes. Past rates come only from web.archive.org copies of Square's own fee article. Helcim is left out because its rates could not be confirmed on its own page for this update. The payment processing fee statistics supplied the keyed-versus-tapped finding.

Financeradar may earn a commission from some links; it never affects rankings (how we make money).

This page is general information, not personalized financial advice. Confirm current rates, surcharge rules and account terms with your processor and your state before changing how you take payments.

Cite this: FinanceRadar, "How to Lower Credit Card Processing Fees in 2026: 7 Moves With the Math," November 2026.

FAQ

What is the fastest way to lower credit card processing fees?

Change how customers pay before changing providers. On Square Free, a typed card costs 3.5% + 15¢ against 2.6% + 15¢ for a tap, and an invoice paid by card costs 3.3% + 30¢ against 1% by ACH, per Square's fee article read October 30, 2026. In our example month, those two changes cut the bill by $110.60.

Is it worth paying for Square Plus to get a lower rate?

Only at high volume or for big ACH invoices. Plus costs $49 a month per location and cuts the in-person rate by 0.1 point, so it pays for itself at $49,000 of in-person sales a month by our arithmetic. Its cap on invoice ACH payments can cover the fee sooner for a business that bills several large invoices by bank transfer.

Can a small business charge customers a credit card fee?

In most states, on credit cards only. Visa's surcharge rules cap the fee at the lower of 3% or your actual rate for that card, forbid it on debit and prepaid cards, and require 30 days' notice to your processor plus disclosure on every receipt. Some states prohibit or restrict surcharging, so confirm your state's current law first.

Are keyed-in card payments more expensive?

Yes. Square and SumUp both charge 3.5% plus a fixed fee for a typed card, against 2.6% plus a fixed fee for a card tapped in person, and Square applies that keyed rate on every plan. All 10 flat-rate products in our payment processing fee data that publish a keyed rate charge more for it.

Does accepting ACH instead of cards save money?

On large payments, yes. Square charges 1% with a $1 minimum for invoice ACH on its Free plan, with a cap on Plus and Premium, and nothing when the money lands in Square Checking. A $2,000 invoice costs $20 by ACH on Square Free against $66.30 by card, by our arithmetic.

When should I ask my processor for custom rates?

Once your volume is large enough to negotiate. Square invites businesses processing over $250,000 a year, about $20,833 a month, to contact sales for custom pricing. Bring recent statements and your split between tapped, keyed and online payments, since that mix drives what you pay.

Is Authorize.net cheaper than Square for online sales?

It depends on volume. Authorize.net charges $25 a month plus 2.9% + 30¢, while Square Free charges 3.3% + 30¢ for its online store, so Authorize.net costs less above $6,250 of online card sales a month by our arithmetic. Against Square's payments API, which charges the same rate with no monthly fee, the subscription is extra cost.