What Your Current Rate Is Actually Costing.
Set two numbers — what the business runs through cards in a month, and the effective rate it pays today — and see an estimate of what a different arrangement could be worth. It is an estimate, produced from what you entered, and it is not a quote.
- Monthly card volume
- Effective rate
- Standard pricing
- Cash Discount
- Instant estimate
- No statement needed to start
Estimate what a change would be worth.
Move the two sliders. The estimate updates as you go, and nothing is sent anywhere until you decide to send it.
What you are paying today, before any Highline review.
Cash Discount With a compliant dual-pricing program the merchant's estimated processing cost is $0 — the non-cash price at checkout carries the cost instead.
- Standard pricing or a Cash Discount program
- Based on your effective rate, not a headline rate
- Statement analysis before anything is quoted
Estimates only. Final pricing requires statement analysis and approval.
Send a StatementTwo numbers in, one estimate out.
The calculator is doing something simple, and it is worth knowing exactly what — an estimate you understand is more useful than one you have to trust.
You give it two things: how much card volume the business runs in a typical month, and the effective rate it pays on that volume today. Effective rate is total processing charges divided by total card volume — the all-in figure, rather than the headline rate on the front of a statement.
From those it works out what the current arrangement costs in a month and in a year, and applies a general comparison model to show what a change could be worth. That model is not your pricing and it is not a Highline rate: it is a broad ladder used to size the question, which is why the result is called an estimate everywhere it appears.
Estimates only. Figures are produced from the values entered above using a general comparison model — they are not a quote, not an offer and not conditional approval. Actual pricing depends on card mix, average ticket, entry method, industry and volume, and follows statement analysis and account approval.
- Monthly card volume Everything taken by credit and debit card in a normal month. Not total revenue — cash, checks and bank transfers are not part of this calculation.
- Your effective rate Total processing charges divided by total card volume, taken from one full statement. Almost always higher than the rate that was quoted, and the only figure worth comparing.
- The pricing mode Standard models a conventional processing arrangement. Cash Discount models a compliant dual-pricing program, where the cost moves to the non-cash price at checkout.
- What comes back Your current cost, and an estimated saving. No Highline rate appears anywhere, because a rate quoted before your statement has been read is a guess.
What turns an estimate into a number you can act on.
One recent full processing statement is enough to replace every assumption on this page with something true about your business. It is read line by line rather than scanned for a headline rate, and what comes back is what acceptance actually costs and where the cost is coming from.
Cash Discount Programs- The statement is read in full
- Interchange, assessments, markup, monthly charges and per-item fees — including the ones that never come up in a sales conversation.
- Your real effective rate
- Calculated from the document rather than estimated from a slider, and read against what your card mix would ordinarily support.
- Equipment and gateway reviewed with it
- Terminal, gateway and platform charges sit on the same statement and are part of the same answer.
- Terms in writing before anything changes
- Nothing on this page, and nothing in the estimate, is an offer. Real pricing is documented before it is agreed.
The estimate, answered plainly.
Mostly about what the number means — and, in the last one, about what it does not mean.
Cash Discount ProgramsWhat is an effective rate, and how do I find mine?
It is the only figure worth comparing: everything your processor charged you in a month, divided by everything you ran through it in that month, expressed as a percentage. Take the total fees from a full processing statement and divide it by total card volume for the same period.
It is almost never the rate on the front of the statement. A headline rate covers one category of transaction; the effective rate includes interchange, assessments, the processor markup, and the monthly and per-item charges that never come up in a sales conversation. The gap between the two is the entire reason the calculation is worth doing.
Why does the calculator not show me your rate?
Because a rate quoted before anyone has read your statement is a guess, and a guess printed on a website becomes a number you are entitled to hold us to. Card cost depends on your card mix, your average ticket, how transactions are entered, your industry and your volume — none of which a slider knows. The calculator shows what your current arrangement costs and what a change could be worth; the figure that replaces it comes after a statement review.
Is the estimate a quote?
No. It is an estimate produced from two numbers you supplied, using a general comparison model. It is not an offer, it is not pricing, and it is not conditional approval. Real pricing follows statement analysis and account approval, and it arrives in writing.
What do you need in order to give me a real number?
One recent full processing statement — the whole document rather than the summary page, because the charges that matter are spread across it. If you take payments in more than one way, send the statement covering the busiest of them first. Nothing is signed to have it looked at.
The Cash Discount setting shows a much larger saving. Does that mean free processing?
No, and it is worth being precise about this. A compliant cash discount program does not remove the cost of accepting cards — it changes who the cost falls to, by posting one price and discounting it for customers who pay with cash. The model treats that as the merchant no longer carrying the card cost, which is why the estimate moves so far.
What it does not model is everything that decides whether the program suits your business: your state, card network rules, the disclosure and signage required, how your customers react, and what happens to your card-to-cash split. Those are the reasons the program has a page of its own.
An estimate is a starting point. A statement is an answer.
Estimate here. Answer from a statement.
- One full processing statement is all it takes
- Nothing is signed to have it looked at
- Estimates only — pricing follows analysis and approval