# How Much Are You Overpaying for Payments?

URL: https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/how-much-are-you-overpaying-calculator
Type: Free interactive calculator
Summary: Enter your volume, ticket size and card mix to see the real annual difference — including the Amex share at which Paydude stops being cheaper.

Most savings calculators compare two headline rates and stop. That is fine when both providers price every card identically, and misleading when they do not — so this one asks for your card mix and tells you the point at which the answer flips. It compares against Stripe's published 2.9% + 30¢, the most widely used reference rate.

## Summary

Card mix moves the answer more than the headline rate does. Paydude surcharges Amex, premium and corporate cards at +0.3%. Paydude does not surcharge international cards; most flat-rate providers do. The calculator shows the surcharged share at which we stop being cheaper.

## Why headline rates mislead

Two providers can advertise rates a few basis points apart and cost very different amounts, because what they surcharge differs. A comparison that ignores this is comfortable to publish and easy for a prospect to disprove with one statement.

**Where the two rate cards differ — Paydude versus Stripe's published 2.9% + 30¢**

| Card type | Paydude | Typical flat-rate provider |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Base rate | 2.6% + 25¢, improving with volume | 2.9% + 30¢ |
| Premium, corporate or business | +0.3% | No surcharge |
| American Express | +0.3% | No surcharge |
| Issued outside your country | No surcharge | +1–1.5% |
| Currency conversion | Not surcharged separately | Commonly +1% |
| Monthly platform fee | $0 | $0 |

Read that table honestly and it says two things. If a large share of your volume is Amex or corporate cards, our advantage narrows. If a meaningful share is international, it widens considerably.

## The number worth checking

The calculator reports the **break-even surcharged share** — the point at which the +0.3% on Amex and premium cards cancels out the lower base rate. Compare that against the real figure on your own statement.

> **Where we are not the cheaper option:** A merchant whose volume is heavily weighted toward American Express and corporate cards, with little international volume, may well pay less elsewhere. That is a real case and the calculator will say so rather than hiding it.

## What this deliberately leaves out

- **Chargeback and dispute fees.** Paydude charges $12 against a $15–$25 norm, but the total depends on your dispute rate rather than your volume.
- **Monthly platform fees**, which Paydude does not charge on any tier and some competitors do.
- **Billing surcharges.** Subscriptions and invoices carry no additional Paydude percentage; several providers price recurring billing separately.
- **Negotiated pricing**, which is not public and which we cannot model.

Each of those runs in our favour, so the figure above is the conservative version.

## Above $5M a month

Pricing moves to interchange plus 0.2% + 25¢ rather than a blended flat rate. The calculator still models the Scale flat rate at those volumes, so the real figure is usually better than shown — see [what is interchange-plus pricing](https://www.paydude.io/resources/what-is-interchange-plus-pricing).

**See the full rate card** Every tier and every situational fee, published up front. — [View pricing](https://www.paydude.io/pricing)

## Frequently asked questions

### Is Paydude always cheaper?

No, and the calculator will tell you when it is not. Paydude surcharges premium, corporate, business and American Express cards at +0.3%. A merchant with a high share of those and little international volume may pay less elsewhere. For most card mixes the lower base rate and the absence of an international surcharge more than cover it.

### Why does Paydude surcharge Amex when other providers do not?

Because American Express interchange is genuinely more expensive to accept, and Paydude passes that through as a stated surcharge rather than blending it into a higher base rate everyone pays. The trade is that merchants with little Amex volume stop subsidising those with a lot.

### Why is there no international surcharge?

There is no Paydude surcharge on cards issued abroad, where most flat-rate providers add 1–1.5% plus around 1% for currency conversion. For a business with meaningful overseas volume that is usually the largest single line in the comparison.

### What card mix numbers should I enter?

Take them from a statement rather than estimating. Most processors break volume down by card type and issuing region. Estimates tend to understate Amex and premium share, which makes the result look better than it is.