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Research

Methodology

myPayAdvisor measures payment processor effective rates, fees, and operator outcomes using public processor pricing, the Federal Reserve’s payments studies, the Nilson Report, and reviewer-confirmed merchant statements. This page documents every input, every assumption, and every update cycle.

What we measure

We track effective rate (total card-processing cost as a percent of volume), fee structure (interchange-plus, flat-rate, tiered, subscription), contract terms (length, ETF, reserves, settlement time), and operator outcomes (statement audits, negotiated savings, churn from processor switches).

Sample selection

Our 2026 baseline covers 15 U.S. payment processors at four volume tiers ($10K, $50K, $250K, $1M monthly) across three channels (online, in-person, mixed). The processors selected together cover ~80% of U.S. small-and-mid-market processing volume per Nilson Report market-share estimates.

Processor selection rule: must (a) accept SMBs without an introducer, (b) publish transparent pricing on their website, (c) have an audited fee disclosure of some form. We do not include white-label-only processors or those that quote only by phone.

Card-mix assumption

All effective-rate calculations use a normalized U.S. SMB card mix of 60% credit, 40% debit, with 30% of credit volume in rewards tiers. This mix matches the Federal Reserve’s 2022-2024 payments studies for U.S. retail and online merchants under $1M annual volume.

For business-to-business heavy verticals (B2B SaaS, professional services), we publish an alternate mix (80% credit, 20% debit, 50% of credit in business rewards) on individual articles where the vertical demands it.

Inputs and data sources

  • Processor public pricing— Stripe pricing pages, Square pricing pages, PayPal Business fees, Helcim pricing, Stax, Payment Depot, Adyen, Clover (via Fiserv), Worldpay, Shopify Payments, Authorize.net, Braintree. Captured at quarterly snapshots. Last full capture: 2026-04-30.
  • Card network interchange schedules— published Visa and Mastercard interchange tables (U.S.), accessed via official network sites.
  • Federal Reserve payments studies— H.3 release and the triennial Federal Reserve Payments Study series.
  • Nilson Report— market-share estimates and merchant counts; public excerpts only.
  • ETA Trends and Insights— Electronic Transactions Association industry data on U.S. processor consolidation, ISO economics, and merchant churn rates.
  • Reviewer-confirmed merchant statements— statements submitted by readers to the free statement audit tool. Used only in aggregate, fully anonymized, with explicit consent. As of 2026-05-18, the aggregated set is not yet large enough to release as a public dataset; we plan first release Q3 2026.

How we calculate effective rate

For every processor and volume tier:

  1. Start with published headline rate (e.g. 2.9% + $0.30 for Stripe online).
  2. Apply the normalized card mix to derive the blended rate component.
  3. Add per-transaction fixed fees scaled by an average ticket of $74 (U.S. SMB median, per the Federal Reserve).
  4. Add any monthly fees (gateway, statement, PCI, regulatory) divided by the volume tier to express as a percentage.
  5. Subtract volume discounts that are publiclydocumented and automatic at the tier level. We do not include “call us to negotiate” discounts.

Result: published effective rate as a single percentage at each volume tier and channel. See the downloadable dataset at /data/effective-rates-2026 for the full table plus CSV and JSON.

What we do not claim

  • We do not claim the published rates equal what every merchant pays. Real merchant rates depend on negotiation, vertical risk, monthly volume volatility, and ISO relationships.
  • We do not include cash-discounting or surcharge programs in headline calculations, because their applicability is jurisdiction-dependent and not always legal.
  • We do not project future rates. The 2026 dataset describes 2026 pricing; we refresh quarterly.
  • We are independent and do not accept payment from processors to influence rankings or comparison conclusions.

Reviewer

Every quarterly refresh is reviewed by Barak Bachar, Global Payments Manager, with operator-side experience covering interchange economics, processor comparisons, chargeback defense, and merchant payment acceptance. Reviewer credentials are detailed on his profile.

Update cadence

  • Headline pricing— quarterly snapshot from processor public pages.
  • Interchange schedules— biannual (Visa/Mastercard publish in April and October).
  • Federal Reserve studies— triennial, with annual H.3 release updates.
  • Aggregated reader statements— planned annual release once sample exceeds 1,000 statements.

Corrections

If you find a rate, fee, or methodology claim on this site that you believe is outdated or wrong, email info@mypayadvisor.com with the specific URL and citation. We correct material errors within 14 days and log every correction on the affected article’s sources block.