Network rules
Minimum purchase requirements aren’t allowed.
Visa and Mastercard network rules prohibit minimum purchase requirements on card transactions. Reps routinely don’t tell merchants this — so the rule gets broken every day.
Elevate Pay — powered by CardConnect
Card processing,
in plain English.
Most merchants are paying around 4% of their profit to accept cards. Some are paying 4% of every sale. We’ll show you the rules your current processor isn’t telling you about — and what it looks like to pay closer to 2%.
Licensed CardConnect broker. CardConnect is a First Data company. Based in Wilmington, NC — serving North and South Carolina.
Our rate
~2%
Typical all-in rate through our CardConnect program.
Industry typical
~4%
What most merchants pay today — often 4% of profit, sometimes 4% of sale.
Long-term contracts
0
Long-term contracts or surprise statement fees. We send you the rules in writing.
A rough first look — the math, briefly.
The case for doing the arithmetic before the call.
Three numbers off your last statement is enough for a ballpark. It is not a quote — a real quote comes from reading the statement itself.
A note — on switching
A simple, three-step path.
You don’t need to rip out your terminal or learn anything new. Most merchants are switched over and processing in about a week.
Within two business days, you’ll get a one-page comparison: your current effective rate, what you’d pay through Elevate Pay, and the three line items on your statement most worth questioning. It’s a PDF, not a sales call.
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Step 01 —
Send a recent statement.
We’ll read it line by line and show you exactly where the money is going — in plain English, no upsell.
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Step 02 —
Get a side-by-side quote.
Same volume, same card mix, real CardConnect pricing. If we can’t save you money, we’ll tell you.
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Step 03 —
Switch and start saving.
CardConnect handles the boarding. You keep most of your existing setup. We stay on call if anything looks off on a future statement.
The case for —
On the second rail.
ACH (also called eCheck) moves money bank-to-bank through the national ACH network — not through Visa or Mastercard. There’s no card-network percentage on it. For the right kind of charge, that matters.
Recurring
Recurring B2B invoices.
Monthly bills above roughly $500 are where ACH starts to beat card economics meaningfully. A 2% markup on a $2,000 invoice is real money.
Payouts
Contractor and vendor payouts.
If you’re paying trades or vendors on a regular cadence, bank-to-bank is usually the right rail. Cards aren’t built for it.
Large-ticket
Large-ticket one-offs.
On a $5,000 deposit, the difference between a card swipe and an ACH pull is roughly a hundred dollars. It adds up faster than people think.
And if you take orders by phone, email, or invoice — contractors, mobile service trades, freelance bookkeepers — a virtual terminal in a browser is usually a better fit than a countertop device. CardConnect’s CardPointe Virtual Terminal is included.
What you should know.
The rules your rep didn’t tell you about.
POS bundles
Your POS bundle is probably the most expensive part.
Many integrated POS systems lock processing inside long contracts at ~4% of profit. The terminal feels “free” because the spread hides in your statement.
Interchange
Interchange isn’t the same as your rate.
Interchange is the wholesale cost set by Visa and Mastercard. Your effective rate is interchange plus a markup. The markup is what processors negotiate — and where the abuse usually lives.
Regulated debit
Regulated debit costs the processor about a quarter.
When a customer pays with a regulated debit card from a large bank, the interchange cost is capped at $0.21 plus 0.05% of the sale (Federal Reserve Regulation II). On a $100 debit sale, that’s about $0.26 in wholesale cost. If your flat “blended” rate is 2.9% + $0.30, you’re paying roughly 11x the wholesale cost on that swipe — and your processor is keeping the difference.
A note — on what we’re not
When we’re not the right fit, we’ll save you the call.
A few situations where we’re not the right brokerage:
- You’re an enterprise merchant with an in-house treasury team. You already have leverage we can’t add to.
- You’re in a high-risk vertical CardConnect doesn’t board — firearms, adult, certain CBD categories. We’d have to refer you out.
- You’re shopping purely on the lowest teaser rate. We price honestly, not aggressively, and the merchant whose only filter is the headline number is usually disappointed by month three.
Before you write —
The questions we get most.
- Do I have to leave my POS?
- Usually no. Most modern POS systems can route payments through CardConnect. We’ll check yours against the supported list before we ever ask you to switch.
- How long is the contract?
- Month-to-month on the processing side. No multi-year lock, no early-termination fee from us. If your current processor has one, we’ll read that clause with you.
- What happens to my existing terminal?
- Often you keep it. CardConnect supports most major terminal families. If yours isn’t compatible, we’ll tell you up front what replacement looks like.
- What if my volume drops?
- Your rate doesn’t change because of a slow month. There’s no minimum-volume penalty in our agreement.
- Who’s actually underwriting my account?
- CardConnect, a First Data company. Regulated Payments is the brokerage that signs you up and stays on call. The money moves through CardConnect’s rails, not ours.
From the editor —
From Amanda, in Wilmington.
By Amanda Rhyne
Wilmington, NC — I started Regulated Payments because I spent years watching small businesses sign processing contracts no one read to them. The rules aren’t a secret — Visa and Mastercard publish them — but most reps don’t quote them. Send a statement and I’ll read it back to you in plain English. If switching doesn’t save you money, I’ll tell you that too.
A note from Amanda, before you write
Send us a statement.
Tell us a little about your business and attach a recent processing statement. We’ll come back with a real comparison — usually within two business days.
Or send it straight to [email protected] · (818) 538-0035.