Surcharge
A percentage added to credit transactions at the register, disclosed at the door and on the receipt. Capped at 3% by Visa and 4% by Mastercard, and never above your actual cost of acceptance. Debit and prepaid are excluded by rule.
Most operators are quoted a headline rate and billed an effective one. We read your statement line by line, separate the costs that are fixed by the card networks from the markup your processor chose, and renegotiate or replace the part that's actually negotiable.
| Card volume processed | $5,184,000 | |
| Interchange Fixed | $101,088 | 1.95% |
| Network assessments Fixed | $7,258 | 0.14% |
| Processor markup Negotiable | $57,024 | 1.10% |
| POS software & terminals Negotiable | $15,552 | 0.30% |
| Monthly, PCI & batch Reducible | $4,666 | 0.09% |
| Total cost of acceptance | $185,588 | 3.58% |
Illustrative example — a four-location restaurant group running about $432,000 a month. Your review uses your own statement.
Your true cost of acceptance splits into four parts. Two are fixed by the card networks and cost exactly the same no matter who sells you the terminal. Two — your processor's margin, and what you're billed for software and hardware — were decided by someone with a quota. Those are the two we work on.
A tiered or flat-rate plan exists to hide the negotiable bands inside the fixed ones.
That's why two restaurants with the same volume, the same card mix and the same terminals can sit 90 basis points apart. Not because one negotiated harder — because one of them can see the line and the other can't.
The software band is the one that surprises people. Per-station licensing, a gateway subscription, a terminal lease signed four years ago that has already paid for the hardware twice over — all of it renews quietly, none of it appears on a rate quote, and all of it is negotiable. We price it alongside the processing, not after.
Not because you're not sharp — because you're negotiating once, with your own volume, against a desk that does this every day and knows exactly what you can't see.
Set your total monthly card volume and the effective rate on your last statement — total fees divided by total volume, which is the only rate that matters. The range below reflects what we typically remove from the markup band.
Effective rate moving from 3.25% to roughly 2.80–2.30%
An estimate, not a quote. Actual savings depend on your card mix, average ticket, and how much of your volume is card-present. Your written review replaces every number here with your own. Would rather not absorb the cost at all? See the three zero-fee models →
If you'd rather not absorb card costs at all, there are three established ways to move them to the customer. All three are legitimate and all three work — when they're set up correctly. Which one fits your business is our assessment to make, not a box for you to tick.
A percentage added to credit transactions at the register, disclosed at the door and on the receipt. Capped at 3% by Visa and 4% by Mastercard, and never above your actual cost of acceptance. Debit and prepaid are excluded by rule.
One posted price, with a stated discount for paying cash. Nothing is added at the register, so it sits outside the surcharge rules entirely — provided the posted price is the price a card customer actually pays.
Both prices shown up front — cash and card — on the menu, the shelf tag or the screen. Nothing is added at checkout and nothing is a surprise to the customer at the moment they decide.
Your card mix, average ticket, debit share, how you advertise prices and what kind of business you are all change which model nets more and which one holds up under the current rules. We model all three against your own numbers and recommend one.
California adds its own layer — the Honest Pricing Law (SB 478) governs how a price has to be advertised, and restaurants have their own menu-disclosure requirements under SB 1524. Every model can be run here; the difference is in how it's presented, and getting that presentation right is the whole job.
General information, not legal advice. We build the programme to the current network and state rules and put every piece of the language in writing — have your own counsel review it before launch.
Set up correctly, all three work. Set up carelessly, all three are a chargeback waiting to happen.
The failure mode is never the model — it's a debit card that got surcharged, signage that isn't where the rules say it has to be, or a receipt that doesn't itemise the fee. That's procedure, and procedure is what you're hiring us for.
The analysis is the product. Whether you move your processing afterwards is a separate decision, and plenty of operators don't — they take the report back to their incumbent and use it.
A single recent processing statement — every page, including the fee schedule. That's the only thing we need from you.
10 minutes of your timeA written breakdown of your effective rate, all four cost bands, every recurring fee, software licence and hardware lease — and what each should be at your volume.
Two business daysIf you move, we do the work: the processor, the underwriting file, the hardware, the full menu build and the cutover. You approve; you don't assemble.
24–72 hours to liveThe reason most operators stay on bad pricing isn't the pricing — it's the thought of rebuilding a 400-item menu, retraining two shifts and losing a Friday. So that part is ours. You hand us your current menu in whatever form it exists and we hand back a system your staff can run.
Cutover happens between services, one location at a time. Nobody takes a register down mid-shift.
You sign off on the built menu before a single terminal is swapped — item by item, on screen, alongside your current one. If something's wrong, it gets fixed before go-live rather than discovered by a server at seven on a Saturday. Multi-site groups are staged site by site unless you specifically want them simultaneous.
We also close out the old account properly: hardware returned or decommissioned, final statement reconciled, and the termination paperwork filed so you aren't still being billed a monthly on a terminal in a drawer.
Consolidated deposits and fee reporting across every location, with per-site breakouts your bookkeeper can reconcile without a spreadsheet.
Your whole group is priced as one book of volume, so a newer or slower location isn't penalised for its own numbers.
We price terminals and handhelds outright against what you're leasing now — and read the lease for the evergreen renewal clause before you sign anything new.
Per-station licensing, gateway subscriptions, online-ordering and loyalty modules — itemised, benchmarked and negotiated as part of the deal rather than left to auto-renew.
EMV, point-to-point encryption and tokenisation so card data never sits on your network, plus the annual PCI attestation filed for each location.
Online ordering, delivery aggregators, gift and loyalty, payroll and accounting — we confirm every integration survives the move before anything is signed.
One person who knows your group, your card mix and your seasonality — reachable directly, and who re-audits your statement every year whether or not you ask.
Analysis, contracts, cutover and on-site staff training delivered in either language — which in Los Angeles is the difference between a smooth rollout and a bad Friday night.
Nothing, and there's no obligation. You get a written analysis: your effective rate, your volume split by card type, interchange and assessments separated from your processor's markup, every recurring fee itemised with what it should be at your volume, and a plain statement of what we think is recoverable.
The report is yours whether or not you move. A fair number of operators take it back to their incumbent and negotiate with it — that's a legitimate outcome and we'll tell you if it's the likely best one.
Usually not. The analysis will show the fee, what remains on the term, and whether the monthly recovery clears it — and how fast. In many cases the ETF is recovered inside a quarter, and in some the clause isn't enforceable as written. We'll read your agreement before you make the call.
Only if it's the cheaper path. A lot of terminals can be reprogrammed to a new processor. Where new hardware makes sense — usually for tap-to-pay, handhelds at the table, or a POS that's aged out — we price it, roll it out location by location, and train your staff before you cut over.
If you're on a terminal lease, send that too. Leases are frequently the worst line on the whole file: four-year terms on hardware that costs a few hundred dollars, with an evergreen clause that renews unless you cancel in a 30-day window. We'll tell you what's left on it, whether it's separable from your processing agreement, and what buying outright would cost instead.
We do, and it's included. Items, modifiers, combos, daypart and happy-hour pricing, kitchen routing, floor plan, job roles and permissions — built from your current POS export, a spreadsheet, a PDF or photos of the printed menu. You review it on screen next to your existing menu and sign off before any terminal is swapped.
There's no build fee, no training fee and no separate implementation charge. We're compensated by the processor out of the markup on your account — the same band we negotiate down — so nothing is added to your rate to pay for the work.
Yes — through a surcharge, a cash discount or dual pricing. All three are established and all three are compliant when they're built correctly; they differ in how the price is presented and what has to be registered and disclosed.
Which one suits you depends on your card mix, average ticket, debit share and how you advertise prices, so we model all three against your own numbers and recommend one. Then we run the procedure: brand registration and the 30-day notice where it applies, debit and prepaid excluded in the POS, entry and register signage, receipt text, and a staff brief on what to say when a customer asks. Rules here have changed more than once recently, so we re-check the setup at your annual review.
Yes, and you should. One agreement across the group prices your combined volume rather than each site's, consolidates reporting and deposits, and means a new location opens at the group rate on day one instead of being quoted as a start-up.
Significantly. Commercial cards carry higher interchange, but passing Level 2 and Level 3 data — tax amount, customer code, line-item detail — qualifies those transactions for lower categories. If your B2B volume is meaningful and your current setup isn't passing that data, it's usually the single largest line in the analysis.
Underwriting is typically same-day to 48 hours with a clean file. Hardware and cutover run 24 to 72 hours after approval, scheduled around your slow period rather than ours. Multi-location rollouts are staged one site at a time unless you want them simultaneous.
TapWise Advisors is an independent merchant payment advisory based in Los Angeles. We're an independent agent — we place business with multiple processors rather than working for one, which is what makes the comparison honest. You'll work with a named advisor, not a call centre, and you'll have their direct line.
Your statement is used for the analysis and nothing else. We don't sell or share it, we don't need your bank credentials, and we never handle cardholder data — that stays between your terminal, the encryption on it, and the processor.
Tell us where to reach you and we'll come back with a secure upload link the same day. No sales call required to receive the analysis.