Statement Fee Decoder
Decode every line on your processing statement
Processing statements bury real network costs under named line items that mean nothing to most merchants. Each entry below explains one of them in plain English: what it is, who charges it, what fair looks like, and whether you can get rid of it.
Every line, in plain English
20 fees
- Cash when the bills are due
Today's sales, in your account tomorrow.
- No hardware trap
Keep a compatible terminal, or rent one month to month.
- A bill you can budget for
No mystery charges. Any junk fee refunded twice.
- Facts, not a pitch
See what you would pay, within 1 business day.
Fee creep
The fees that show up after you sign.
Tap the fees on your own statement and watch three years of them add up. Then decode every line below.
The decoder
Every fee, decoded.
- PCI compliance feeProcessor markupAlso billed as PCI annual fee, PCI assessment
- Monthly statement feeJunkAlso billed as Statement fee, Reporting fee
- Monthly minimum feeJunkAlso billed as Processing minimum, Minimum discount
- Annual feeJunkAlso billed as Membership fee, Account maintenance fee
- Gateway feeProcessor markupAlso billed as Gateway access fee, Gateway monthly fee
- Regulatory reporting feeJunkAlso billed as IRS reporting fee, Regulatory recovery fee
- Customer service feeJunkAlso billed as Service fee, Help desk fee
- Paper statement feeProcessor markupAlso billed as Mailed statement fee
- Batch feeJunkAlso billed as Batch header fee, Settlement fee
- AVS feeProcessor markupAlso billed as Address verification fee
- Non-qualified surchargeJunkAlso billed as Non-qual surcharge
- Mid-qualified surchargeJunkAlso billed as Mid-qual surcharge, Partially qualified surcharge
- Downgrade feeProcessor markupAlso billed as EIRF, EIRF fee
- PCI non-compliance feeJunkAlso billed as PCI non-validation fee
- Early termination feeJunkAlso billed as ETF, Cancellation fee, Liquidated damages
- Terminal rental markupProcessor markupAlso billed as Equipment rental fee, Terminal lease
- Chargeback feeProcessor markupAlso billed as Dispute fee
- Retrieval request feeProcessor markupAlso billed as Retrieval fee, Copy request fee
- Cross-border feePass-through at costAlso billed as Foreign transaction fee, International assessment, International service fee
- Interac processing feePass-through at costAlso billed as Interac debit fee
- What is an authorization fee, and why do you pay it even when a card is declined
- What is a card-network assessment fee, and why is it not your processor's to set
- What is a misuse-of-authorization fee, and what triggers it
Ready to run the numbers?
One fee a week, explained
Get plain-language explanations of statement fees like this one: what each fee is, who set it, and whether it can come off. No sales calls.