Effective rate calculator
Your advertised rate is not what you pay. Enter two numbers from last month's statement and find out what accepting cards actually costs you.
Your effective rate is the whole cost of accepting cards reduced to one percentage: total monthly fees divided by total card sales, times 100. It matters because advertised rates leave things out - a quoted 2.4% can cost you 3.1% once monthly, PCI, statement and per-transaction fees are counted.
Your numbers
Total card volume processed last month.
Every charge on the statement, including monthly, PCI, statement and batch fees.
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Your effective rate
Take last month's statement and enter your total card sales and total fees. We'll do the rest.
What is an effective rate?
Your effective rate is the whole cost of accepting cards, reduced to one percentage. Total fees divided by total card sales, times 100.
It matters because advertised rates leave things out. A processor can quote you 2.4% and still cost you 3.1% once the monthly fee, PCI fee, statement fee, batch fees and per-transaction charges are counted. The effective rate catches all of it, which is why it is the only number worth comparing between two providers.
Where do I find these numbers?
Both are on your monthly merchant statement. Total card sales is usually near the top under sales or deposits. Total fees is the figure that was debited from your account for the month - and be careful here, because some processors bill fees separately from deposits rather than netting them out. If you are not sure which figure is which, reading your merchant statement walks through it line by line.
What counts as a good rate?
It depends on how you take payments, because interchange itself differs. Card-present retail should be the cheapest; keyed and card-not-present transactions carry higher interchange for everyone, no matter who processes them.
These thresholds are set to what a competitive interchange-plus account delivers, not to what the average business pays. That distinction matters: measured against the average, a merchant on flat-rate pricing looks normal. Measured against what is actually achievable, the same merchant is often paying several thousand a year more than they need to.
| Business type | Competitive | Worth a look | Likely overpaying |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | Under 2.1% | 2.1% – 2.5% | Over 2.5% |
| Restaurant / bar | Under 2.3% | 2.3% – 2.7% | Over 2.7% |
| E-commerce | Under 2.5% | 2.5% – 2.9% | Over 2.9% |
| Professional services | Under 2.5% | 2.5% – 2.9% | Over 2.9% |
| B2B | Under 2.4% | 2.4% – 2.8% | Over 2.8% |
Benchmarked against what a competitive interchange-plus account actually delivers, not against the market average - so "competitive" here means genuinely well priced, not merely typical. Stated at a $50 average ticket; the calculator adjusts these for your own ticket size, because per-transaction fees cost more as a percentage on smaller sales.
My rate is high. What now?
A high effective rate is not automatically bad news - it might just mean your customers pay with expensive rewards cards, which nobody controls. But it is usually markup and junk fees. How to lower your processing fees covers the eight things to check, in order, and most of them work without switching processors.
This calculator provides an estimate for general guidance only. Benchmark ranges are advisory and based on accounts we review; they are not a quote, a guarantee of available pricing, or financial advice. Your actual costs depend on your card mix, average ticket, transaction methods and contract terms.