# What Your Payment Processing Really Costs

URL: https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/payment-fee-impact-calculator
Type: Free interactive calculator
Summary: A 2.9% + 30¢ rate costs 5.9% on a $10 sale and 3.0% on a $250 one. Drag your average transaction to see what you actually pay.

Every processor quotes a percentage plus a flat fee. The percentage is comparable between providers. The flat fee is not — what it costs you depends entirely on how big your average sale is.

## Summary

A flat 30¢ is 3% of a $10 sale and 0.12% of a $250 one. At a $10 average ticket, a 2.9% + 30¢ rate really costs 5.9%. Below roughly $10, the fixed fee costs more than the percentage does. Low-ticket businesses should optimise the fixed fee first, not the rate.

## Why the headline rate is misleading

Card pricing has two components, and only one of them scales with the sale. The percentage takes the same share of a $5 transaction as a $500 one. The flat fee takes the same **absolute amount** from both — which means it takes a hundred times more of the small one, proportionally.

**The same 2.9% + 30¢ rate across ticket sizes**

| Average transaction | Fee | Effective rate |
| --- | --- | --- |
| $5 | $0.45 | 8.90% |
| $10 | $0.59 | 5.90% |
| $25 | $1.03 | 4.10% |
| $50 | $1.75 | 3.50% |
| $100 | $3.20 | 3.20% |
| $250 | $7.55 | 3.02% |

A business selling $5 add-ons and a business selling $250 annual plans are on identical published pricing and paying rates almost three times apart.

## What this means if you sell low-ticket

If your average transaction is small — micro-SaaS, per-seat add-ons, usage top-ups, tips, digital downloads — the flat fee is your dominant cost. Two consequences follow.

1. **Compare fixed fees, not percentages.** A processor at 3.1% + 15¢ beats one at 2.9% + 30¢ on every sale under about $75.
2. **Batching is worth real money.** Charging one $60 invoice instead of six $10 ones pays the flat fee once rather than six times — a saving of $1.50 on $60, or 2.5% of revenue.

> **The crossover point:** Divide the fixed fee by the rate difference to find where two processors cost the same. Between 2.9% + 30¢ and 2.6% + 25¢, the cheaper option wins at every ticket size — but the gap is widest on small transactions.

## What this does not include

- International card surcharges, which apply only when the card was issued abroad
- Premium rewards, corporate and business card surcharges
- Currency conversion, chargeback and retrieval fees
- Monthly platform or gateway fees, which spread across volume rather than per transaction

For your real blended number across all of those, run a month of statements through the [effective rate calculator](https://www.paydude.io/resources/tools/effective-rate-calculator).

**Paydude starts at 2.6% + 25¢** Lower on both components, which matters most when your tickets are small. — [See the rate card](https://www.paydude.io/pricing)

## Frequently asked questions

### Why is my effective rate higher than the rate I was quoted?

Almost always the fixed per-transaction fee. A quoted 2.9% only describes the percentage component; the flat 30¢ on top adds 3% on a $10 sale and 0.6% on a $50 one. Divide total fees by total volume on a real statement and you will see the true figure.

### What average transaction size should I enter?

Total gross volume divided by the number of transactions, taken from one month's statement. Do not use your list price — refunds, partial charges, proration and annual plans all pull the real average away from it.

### Is a lower percentage always better?

No. Below roughly a $75 ticket, a processor with a lower fixed fee and a slightly higher percentage costs less per sale. The smaller your average transaction, the more the fixed fee decides the outcome.

### Does this apply to debit cards too?

Yes, though debit interchange is capped in many markets, so some processors price debit separately at a lower rate. If a meaningful share of your volume is debit, check whether your provider passes that saving through.