Compare your
payment costs.

In Compare scenarios, use monthly sales at your base or cash prices, before any surcharge or cash-discount price adjustment, and exclude sales tax. Set the cash share under Payment mix; the remaining sales use cards or your chosen ACH share. The same baseline applies to every option. In Understand my bill, use card sales and fees from the same statement period, before customer-paid adjustments. Do not use net deposits in place of sales.

Your statement effective rate is entered monthly fees divided by card sales, multiplied by 100. In the comparison, net cost is processing charges plus recurring costs minus modeled customer-paid surcharges or extra revenue from higher posted card prices. The net percentage uses all base sales, including cash. One-time costs appear in the projection, not the monthly percentage. These two rates have different denominators and should not be compared directly.

The shared sales baseline is valued at cash prices. A discount is taken from the higher posted regular price, so regular price = cash price ÷ (1 − discount). With a 4% discount, a $100 cash purchase has a regular price of approximately $104.17. Card processing is charged on the higher card amount. The difference above base card sales offsets modeled costs. Cash sales remain at base prices. This is not a model for adding a fee to a posted cash price at checkout.

Only the share you identify as eligible credit receives a surcharge; debit and prepaid are excluded, even when processed without a PIN. The calculator applies the lower of your requested rate, entered credit acceptance-cost limit and 3%. It also charges your entered processing percentage on the collected surcharge. Remaining card fees, program costs, equipment and software can therefore leave a balance. Network, state and processor restrictions may require a lower rate or prohibit the program; this tool does not determine eligibility.

Choose the share of non-cash payments moving to ACH. The rest retain the entered card pricing. For each estimated ACH payment, the tool adds the percentage fee and per-payment fee, applies the minimum, then the maximum if entered. Return fees are added separately using the estimated return rate. The model assumes these return fees are additional to processing fees. It does not deduct uncollected sales or estimate dispute losses, refunds, funding delays or bank-verification costs unless you enter a relevant cost.

The model adds your assumed blended interchange and network-cost percentage to the processor markup, then includes per-card transaction fees and recurring charges. Actual interchange varies by card and transaction details. Surcharge and cash-discount scenarios instead use an entered blended all-in card percentage and per-card fee; include the underlying card costs in those inputs.

It means the modeled customer-paid adjustments or higher posted card prices exceed the fees you entered. The calculator shows that amount as a net offset, rather than hiding it at zero. It is not guaranteed profit or a recommendation: price changes can affect sales and customer behavior, and unentered costs still matter. Confirm the actual program economics and requirements with your processor.

Sales, average sale, cash share, payment approach and rates remain constant for the selected 12, 24 or 36 months. Transaction counts are rounded to whole numbers; sales are allocated using those counts at a common average ticket. Monthly net cost is repeated across the period, then setup and other one-time costs are added once. Minimum monthly bills, cash handling, taxes, disputes and termination costs are excluded unless entered. Actual bills and receipt rounding can differ.

The AquaPay marketing add-on is available with eligible 4% cash-discount and select 3.75% cash-discount arrangements only. Choose the marketing add-on under Cash discount to explore it; entering a matching percentage alone does not establish eligibility. Flat-rate, interchange-plus, surcharging and ACH options do not qualify for this benefit. AquaPay confirms the eligible arrangement and final allocation in writing.

No. It is a separate benefit that can fund an automated search-advertising campaign under your program terms. It is not deducted from the calculator’s processing costs or added to its savings difference. Illustrations use estimated processed card volume, including posted-price adjustments, and exclude cash and ACH. A period total assumes the same monthly volume throughout. The final budget is calculated individually; it is not a cash payout, and new customers, revenue or advertising returns are not guaranteed.

No signup is needed. Processing-cost comparisons run in your browser. If you choose Estimate marketing budget, only the selected program, discount rate and estimated card-processing volume are sent to AquaPay to calculate that illustration; those inputs are not stored. No contact details are required. Values reset when you reload. Sample inputs are illustrations, not AquaPay quotes or market benchmarks. You can contact us separately for a review of pricing, eligibility, equipment and contract terms.