Articles

The most widely copied price in software, and nobody set it by calculation.

There is an exact crossover point, and most people have never worked it out.

The 1958 experiment that went badly wrong, got unsolicited card mailings banned, and became Visa.

Rewards are paid for out of interchange — which means out of the merchant.

The questions people actually ask, answered directly.

A payments API for software businesses, with published rates instead of negotiated ones.

Every fee, what triggers it, and worked examples at three volumes.

Every major processor's published rate in one table, with the effective rate at three ticket sizes.

Interchange, assessments and markup — what each one costs, and who actually keeps it.

For decades the signature was the security check. Then all four networks dropped it at once.

The first digit tells you the industry. The first six tell you the bank.

The most retold origin story in payments was described as embellished by the family of the man it is about.

The last digit of your card is not part of the account number. It is a checksum.

Why recurring revenue is the case where the rate difference compounds hardest.

Where an API-first processor fits an online store — and where it does not.

Recurring billing in the same API as processing, at no extra percentage.

Published rates, product surface, and where Adyen is genuinely the better choice.

Published rates, product surface, and where Stripe is genuinely the better choice.

Published rates, product surface, and where Square is genuinely the better choice.

Published rates, product surface, and where PayPal is genuinely the better choice.

Published rates, product surface, and where Shopify Payments is genuinely the better choice.

Published rates, product surface, and where Braintree is genuinely the better choice.

Every serious option, and the cases where each one beats us.

A straight answer, including the cases where it is not.

The resources, the auth model, and what the MCP server exposes.

What sits on our side of the line, and what stays on yours.

From integration to payout, in the order you actually encounter it.

Routing across several processors — and why most businesses should not.

Who legally sells to your customer — and who owes the tax.

The four digits that classify your business — and quietly set your interchange rate.

Send more information with a B2B transaction and pay materially less interchange.

The retry-and-remind process that recovers failed subscription payments.

The customers you lose without anyone deciding to leave.

The service that fixes expired cards before they ever fail.

Bank-to-bank transfers at a fraction of card cost — with real trade-offs.

Money your processor holds back — why it happens and how to get it released.

The text on your customer's statement — and the cheapest chargeback prevention there is.

The step between a successful payment and money you can actually spend.

Two separate steps that most integrations combine — and when you should not.

The transfer that finally puts card revenue in your bank account.

Replacing a card number with a reference — the single most useful idea in payments security.

The authentication step that shifts fraud liability — and costs you conversion.

The European rule that changed checkout — and what it means if you sell into the EU or UK.

The card data security standard — and how to make almost all of it not apply to you.

The warning shot before a chargeback — and your best chance to stop one.

A forced reversal by the customer's bank — and why it costs far more than the sale.

One number for every card — what that simplicity costs, and when it is worth paying.

The transparent pricing model — and the volume at which it starts to win.

The qualified/mid/non-qualified model, and the reason it persists.

The bank on your side of the transaction — and what it is actually liable for.

Visa, Mastercard, Amex and Discover — what they actually do, and what they charge for it.

The model that turned merchant onboarding from weeks into minutes.

The account your card revenue lands in before it reaches your bank — and why you probably already have one.

The part that captures card details at checkout — and why it is not the same as a processor.

The largest fee in every card payment, and the one nobody can discount.

The difference between a processor, a gateway, an acquirer and a merchant account.

The one number that compares cleanly between processors.

Six changes that actually move the number, in the order worth trying them.