What is the Statement Fee on your merchant statement?

Processor markup

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

Your processor or ISO sets this fee. There's no card network requirement to charge for statement delivery, and the actual cost of generating a digital statement is minimal. That makes this a processor markup rather than a pass-through cost. It's also one of the more visibly circular fees on a statement: you're being charged to receive the document that discloses your other charges.

Multi-location and consolidated statements

Businesses running more than one location under a single merchant services relationship sometimes discover they're being charged a separate statement fee per location, even when they'd reasonably expect one consolidated bill. Whether that's the case depends entirely on how your account was set up, and it's worth confirming directly rather than assuming, since the difference between one fee and several compounds quickly for a multi-location operator. Electronic statement delivery typically also comes with faster access, often available a few days earlier than a mailed paper copy would arrive, and a permanent online archive, which is a genuine convenience on top of the fee savings. If your business still receives paper for compliance or bookkeeping reasons, ask whether a downloadable PDF from an online portal would satisfy the same need, since that often qualifies as electronic delivery even though you can still print and file it yourself.

What it typically costs

This is typically billed as a flat amount per month regardless of your processing volume. Industry sources commonly cite this fee in the $5 to $25 a month range. Because it doesn't scale with sales, it has an outsized impact on very low-volume or seasonal businesses, where a fixed monthly charge is a larger share of total fees than it would be for a high-volume account.

Can you get rid of it?

Often, yes. Switching to electronic statement delivery, if you haven't already, removes the paper-specific version of this fee at most processors. The base statement fee itself is also commonly waivable on request, particularly from processors that primarily generate revenue through your transaction volume rather than fixed monthly charges. If your processor won't waive it, that's worth weighing against what else they charge, since it's rarely a fee that stands alone as a dealbreaker but is a reasonable one to challenge.

What to check on your own statement

1. Confirm whether you're being charged one statement fee or two: a base fee plus a separate paper delivery fee.
2. Switch to electronic statements if you're currently receiving paper and don't need it.
3. Check whether the fee amount changes based on your processing volume or stays flat regardless.
4. Ask your processor directly whether the fee can be waived for your account.
5. Note it alongside other flat monthly charges (PCI, minimum, batch) to see their combined fixed-cost impact.

Frequently asked questions

What is a statement fee?

A flat monthly charge for producing and delivering your merchant statement, whether by mail or electronically. It's separate from any percentage-based processing rate.

Can I avoid the statement fee by switching to paperless billing?

You can typically avoid a separate paper statement fee this way, though some processors still charge a base statement fee even for electronic delivery.

Is a statement fee the same as an account maintenance fee?

No. A statement fee specifically covers producing and sending your statement. An account maintenance fee is a broader recurring charge for administering the account itself.

Is the statement fee negotiable?

Often. Since it doesn't reflect a real network cost, many processors will waive it on request, especially for merchants who are otherwise a good account to keep.

Is it worth switching processors just to avoid a statement fee?

On its own, no. A statement fee is almost always a small flat monthly amount, and switching processors is a real project involving new equipment setup, testing, and verifying your first few statements afterward. It's rarely worth that effort for one fee alone. Where it matters is as a data point: if a processor charges a statement fee, a monthly minimum, an account maintenance fee, and a PCI fee all at once, that combination adds up to something meaningfully worse than a processor charging just one or two of them, or none. Look at the total of your flat monthly fees together, not any single one in isolation, before deciding whether a switch is worth it.