A Forty Dollar Sale at the Counter
The same tap of a card costs a different cut on each processor's sheet. Here is how four published price lists treat a sale made in person.
Picture a regular buying a $40 gift basket. She taps her card on the reader, the screen says approved, and she walks out. Some of that $40 never reaches you. How much depends on whose reader sat on the counter.
Two numbers, not one
Almost every in-person price on these sheets has a percentage and a flat amount. The percentage scales with the sale. The flat amount is the same whether she bought a basket or a pack of gum. On small tickets the flat part stings more than you would guess.
What each sheet says
Stripe's pricing page says in-person card payments cost 2.7% + 5¢ per successful transaction for domestic cards.
Square's pricing page says in-person card payments run from 2.6% + 15¢ to 2.4% + 15¢, depending on the plan. The lower rates sit on plans that carry a monthly fee per location, so the cheaper cut is not free.
Shopify's pricing page lists in-person card rates of 2.6% + 10¢ and in-person manual rates of 3.5% + 10¢.
PayPal's fee page says PayPal Point of Sale card present transactions cost 2.29% + 0.09 USD.
Run your own tickets
Take last month's sales and find your typical ticket. A coffee cart and a furniture shop get very different answers from the same two numbers. Work the math on your real average, then on your smallest common sale. Published prices change, so check each company's page on the day you sign.
When the card never touches the reader
A phone order typed in by hand is priced apart from a tap. Square's pricing page says manual entry or card on file payments cost 3.5% + 15¢. If half your orders come by phone, that line matters more than the tap rate above it. Getting the money out fast has a price too, covered in paying to be paid tonight.