What is the Monthly Minimum Fee on your merchant statement?

Processor markup

Who charges it, and is it a pass-through cost or a markup?

This is a processor or ISO charge, set contractually when your account was opened, not a fee required by the card networks. It typically exists because processors want a guaranteed minimum revenue per account regardless of how much you actually process. If your business has a slow month, or processes card payments seasonally, this fee makes the shortfall visible as its own line item instead of it just being buried in a low fee total. It's a processor markup by nature, since there's no equivalent cost on the network side.

Why this hits seasonal businesses hardest

The fee is calculated as a shortfall, not a flat charge, so its impact scales inversely with how far below the minimum you fall. A business that's slightly under the threshold pays a small top-up; a business in its off-season, or one that just opened and is still building volume, can end up paying the fee close to every month during that stretch. This is also one of the fees most likely to have been set without much thought at signup, since sales agents sizing a new account often default to a standard minimum regardless of the business's actual seasonal pattern. If your business has a predictable slow season, mentioning that specifically when negotiating, rather than asking generally to have the fee waived, tends to get a more useful response, since it gives the processor a concrete reason to adjust the number instead of just removing a line item for one billing cycle.

What it typically costs

The minimum threshold and the resulting fee vary by processor and by the terms in your original agreement, so there's no single standard figure to point to. Industry sources commonly cite monthly minimum thresholds in the $10 to $50 range, with $25 to $50 the most frequently reported band; roughly three in ten merchant account contracts include one at all. The number worth tracking is your own: look back at a few months of statements and see how often you actually hit this charge. If it shows up most months, your regular processing fees are consistently below the threshold the account was priced around.

Can you get rid of it?

Often, yes. If your business volume has grown since you opened the account, or if the minimum was set without a good sense of your typical monthly activity, ask your processor to lower or remove it. This is one of the more commonly waived fees because it's purely a contractual term rather than tied to any real transaction cost. If your processor won't adjust it and you're hitting it consistently, that's also a sign the account was priced for a different, higher-volume business than yours.

What to check on your own statement

1. Look for a line item labeled “monthly minimum,” “minimum discount fee,” or similar on your statement.
2. Pull three to six months of statements and count how often the fee actually appears.
3. Compare the minimum threshold, sometimes stated in your merchant agreement, to your typical monthly processing fee total.
4. Ask your processor directly whether the minimum can be lowered or waived given your actual volume.
5. If your volume has grown since signup, flag that specifically. It's the strongest argument for a lower minimum.

Frequently asked questions

What is a monthly minimum fee on a merchant statement?

A charge added when your total processing fees for the month don't reach a minimum amount set in your merchant agreement. The processor bills you the difference to hit that floor.

Why do I have a monthly minimum fee some months and not others?

It only appears in months where your actual processing fees fall below the set threshold. In busier months, your real fees already clear the minimum, so no extra charge applies.

Can a monthly minimum fee be removed?

Often. It's a contractual term rather than a network cost, so processors can typically lower or waive it, especially if your business volume has grown since the account was opened.

Is the monthly minimum fee the same as an account maintenance fee?

No. A maintenance fee is a flat recurring charge regardless of volume. A monthly minimum fee only triggers when your processing activity falls short of a set threshold.

Does a monthly minimum fee show up on flat-rate pricing too?

It's far less common. Flat-rate processors, the kind that charge one blended percentage per transaction with no separate tiers, typically don't build in a monthly minimum, since their pricing model is already designed around per-transaction revenue rather than a guaranteed account-level floor. Monthly minimum fees show up almost exclusively on traditional tiered or interchange-plus accounts set up through an ISO. If you're on flat-rate pricing and see this fee anyway, it's worth asking directly what it's for, since it doesn't fit how that pricing model is usually structured.