Surcharging, cash discounts, and dual pricing can legally shift most processing cost to customers who choose cards. Done right, it transforms thin-margin businesses. Done wrong, it invites network fines, state violations, and customer revolt. The setup is everything.
Card network rules, state laws (a few still restrict surcharging), caps on surcharge percentages, signage and receipt requirements, debit-card exclusions — each one a fine waiting for the sloppy version.
Plenty of 'zero-fee' resellers slap a flat fee on everything — including debit cards, which can't legally be surcharged. The merchant, not the reseller, wears the violation.
A surprise fee at the register reads as a gotcha. The difference between 'fair dual pricing' and 'sneaky junk fee' is presentation — and presentation is a design decision.
A business passing through processing costs compliantly keeps essentially its whole card-fee line — often 2.5–3.5% of card volume straight back to margin. The catch: network audits and state enforcement are real, debit rules trip up most DIY setups, and a badly presented program leaks customers quietly. This is a strategy that rewards being set up by someone who's done it many times, on a platform built for it.
Compliant programs get the structure right from day one: the correct model for your state (true surcharge vs. cash discount vs. dual pricing — they are legally distinct), automatic debit-card detection so debit never gets surcharged, network notification where required, compliant signage and receipt formatting, and surcharge percentages inside the caps.
Several processors in our network run purpose-built programs where the terminal handles all of it automatically — card type detection, correct fee application, compliant receipts. That's the version worth having: the compliance is in the hardware and the program, not in your staff remembering rules.
Just as important, we'll talk honestly about fit. High-ticket B2B and trades? Customers barely blink. Competitive retail with price-sensitive regulars? The presentation needs real care, and sometimes the honest answer is a hybrid or a simple rate fix instead. We'd rather lose a placement than set you up for a customer backlash.
A short set of questions about your business, your volume, and your situation. No documents needed yet, and nothing touches your credit.
Free • No hard credit pullA placement specialist reviews your answers against our processor network and walks you through the realistic options — which underwriters fit your profile, at what terms, and why.
No obligation • Plain EnglishOnce you pick a direction, we help you prepare and submit the application so it lands right the first time — and we stay with you until you are approved and processing.
Hands-on until you are liveA single processor can only offer you their box. We map your profile across an entire network and show you where you actually fit best.
Approvals are not luck. They are about presenting the right business, the right way, to the right desk. That is the part we do every day.
Blind applications create declines on your record, and declines make the next approval harder. We aim you once, at the right target.
Matching is half the job. We help with the application, the documents, and the follow-up until money is actually hitting your account.
When we place you with a processor, that processor pays us a referral fee. You don't pay us anything — not for the survey, not for the call, not for the application help.
Here's why that works in your favor: we work with dozens of processors, so we have no reason to push any particular one. And we only keep getting paid if you stay with the placement — a merchant who leaves in 90 days costs us money. Our incentive is literally to set you up to win. If we can get you to win, we win too.
In most states yes, with rules; a small number still restrict credit surcharging, and cash-discount or dual-pricing structures are the compliant alternative there. The survey asks your state and we'll give you the specific lay of the land for where you operate.
Depends on category and presentation. Trades, B2B, and services see minimal pushback — especially framed as 'card convenience fee, free ACH/cash option.' Price-competitive retail needs more care. We'll give you category-honest guidance, including 'don't do this' if that's the truth.
Surcharge: a disclosed fee added to credit transactions. Cash discount: a posted price reduced for cash payers. Dual pricing: both prices displayed. They're regulated differently, and which one fits depends on your state and signage reality. Getting this classification right is half the compliance battle — it's exactly what the alignment call sorts out.
No. The call is a working session: we review your survey answers, show you which processors realistically fit your profile, and explain the trade-offs. If none of the options beat what you have, we will tell you that and part as friends. Pressure placements come back to bite us — merchants who feel pushed do not stay, and we only get paid when you stay.
The survey and the alignment call involve no credit check at all. A credit check only happens if and when you decide to submit an actual application to a processor — and we will tell you exactly when that step is coming, before it happens.
Nothing. Processors pay us a referral fee when a placement succeeds and sticks. You will never get an invoice from us.
Three minutes on your business, state, and customer mix. We'll tell you which pass-through model fits, what's compliant where you are, and which programs run it automatically.
Set This Up Right