How to Reduce Your Credit Card Expense by 88% in NetSuite

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Yes, as a merchant, credit card companies are ripping you off.

Merchants typically pay credit card transaction fees of 1.5% to 3.5%, and there is currently no federal statutory cap on what a merchant can be charged for accepting a credit card. The important exception is debit cards, where federal law does regulate fees.

Merchants are basically at the mercy of the credit card companies. They can arbitrarily raise their rates and do publish fee adjustments in April and October.

So just how profitable are the credit card companies?

Extremely profitable.

But there is an important distinction between the card networks, such as Visa and Mastercard, and the card issuers, such as Amex, Capital One, Chase and Citi.

Visa and Mastercard Are Extremely Profitable

Visa and Mastercard generally do not lend money directly to consumers. They operate payment networks and collect fees based largely on transaction and payment volume.

That makes their economics quite different from a bank.

Mastercard's fiscal 2025 numbers are particularly striking:

• $32.8 billion in revenue
• $18.9 billion in operating income
• $15.0 billion in net income
• 57.6% GAAP operating margin
• 59.2% adjusted operating margin

Visa has the same basic economics. It processes enormous transaction volumes without bearing the consumer credit risk that issuing banks have to bear.

Then there are the issuing banks.

Chase, Citi, Bank of America, Capital One and others make money from interest, credit card network fees, annual fees and other cardholder fees, less rewards, credit losses, funding costs and operating expenses.

These businesses can also be very profitable, but they are much more capital-intensive and risky than Visa or Mastercard.

Capital One illustrates the difference. It generated $53.4 billion of net revenue in 2025 but only $2.5 billion of net income. That was also an unusual year because of its acquisition of Discover, but it demonstrates why you cannot compare a card lender's revenue margin directly with Mastercard's.

Yes, the credit card companies and issuing banks make an insane amount of profit on their operations, with merchants and consumers footing the bill.

So what can you actually do about it?

How to Get Even

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There are really only two ways to significantly reduce your credit card processing fees:

1. Shift your customers to paying with bank-to-bank transfers, or ACH.
2. Begin adding a fixed surcharge percentage to credit card transactions.

Beyond those two options, yes, you can negotiate with your credit card processor to lower their markup and fixed fees.

But the savings there will generally be nominal compared with the full cost of your credit card processing.

Processor Fixed and Hidden Statement Fees

Additionally, go through your processing statement carefully because processors can make a surprising amount of money from fees that have nothing to do with their advertised percentage markup.

Look for monthly minimums, statement/account fees, PCI compliance fees, PCI non-compliance fees, gateway fees, authorization fees, batch/settlement fees, chargeback fees, international card fees, equipment fees and early termination fees. Some processors even charge for account verification transactions or an authorization misuse fee when an authorization is not settled properly.

Also watch your actual percentages. Card network interchange rates change periodically, and processor agreements may allow new or increased fees to be passed through with notice. That notice may simply appear on a statement that nobody reads.

Some processors will arbitrarily increase their markup percentage on every transaction with a simple notice on your statement. Fiserv is notorious for doing this whereas Elavon may not increase their markup percentage without getting your signature first! 

Another hidden expense is downgrading. How the card is entered, how quickly the transaction is settled and how much transaction data is submitted can all affect the interchange category. A transaction that should have received a better rate can therefore quietly process at a more expensive rate.

Bottom line: do not just look at the processor's advertised percentage. Calculate your actual effective rate every month and question anything that changed.

Detailed Statement Analysis

Analyzing a processor’s monthly statement can be a very daunting process given how complicated they can be. In some cases they are purposefully misleading with additional processor markups hiding in different categories making them seem like interchange fees when they are not.

Whenever Nimbus Payments helps a merchant with their NetSuite credit card processing, we do a full statement analysis and educate the merchant on all the various sections and fees along with a straight, no nonsense savings analysis. This is usually very illuminating!

Transparency and integrity are not necessarily hallmarks in the credit card industry with sales people hustling merchants to sign agreements they do not fully understand and then raising markups later without notice.

Nimbus Payments has a found principle to bring a level of ethics and integrity to credit card processing in order to build long trusted relationships with our NetSuite  merchants. 

Negotiating Your Credit Card Processing Fees

If your current processing is under a fixed-rate plan, for example 2.9%, more than likely you will not be able to negotiate a different rate.

Examples of processors using fixed-rate pricing include Stripe, Square, PayPal and others.

Otherwise, you are most likely on what is known as an Interchange Plus plan.

Interchange-plus pricing is a credit card processing model where the merchant pays:

Interchange + card-network fees + processor markup

Interchange is the portion of the card transaction fee that compensates the card-issuing bank for facilitating the transaction and assuming certain risks associated with it.

For example, your pricing might look like:

Interchange + network fees + 0.25% + $0.10 per transaction

A typical processor markup range is approximately 0.20% to 0.30%, depending on the merchant's annual credit card volume.

Attempting to squeeze your processor on that markup and the fixed fees can result in some savings.

But again, those savings will be nominal compared with the full cost of accepting credit cards.

Let's dive deeper into the two areas where you can actually make a significant difference.

Bank-to-Bank ACH Transfers

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Bank-to-bank or ACH, Automated Clearing House, transfers really do cut the credit card companies completely out of the transaction and dramatically reduce transaction fees.

ACH processing fees are the fees charged to electronically transfer funds directly between bank accounts through the Automated Clearing House network.

Unlike credit card processing, ACH fees are generally flat or capped and are substantially lower than card-processing fees.

The actual fee will depend on how the transfer is being handled.

If the transfer goes directly from the customer's bank to the merchant's bank without needing to update a third-party billing system such as Quickbooks or NetSuite, the fees are normally nominal.

They might be only:

$0.20 to $2.00 per transaction

When the transfer needs to synchronize with a billing system such as Quickbooks or NetSuite, the fees will typically include a percentage markup plus a per-transaction fee. In some cases, the percentage fee is capped.

For example:

• Stripe: 0.8%, capped at $5
• Quickbooks: 1%, typically capped at $15
• NetSuite: depends on the provider, but the markup is usually 0.30% or less

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What Does That Mean on a $5,000 Invoice?

Here is what the processing expense can look like on a $5,000 transaction:

That is the difference we are talking about.

How to Shift Customers to ACH

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Customers do love their credit cards.

They earn rewards points, free travel, flight upgrades and other benefits.

But who foots the bill?

The merchant!

The more valuable the card rewards, the higher the interchange rate that is passed on to the merchant.

Some customers may actually prefer ACH because they do not want to use a company credit card.

ACH payments for B2B transactions are also particularly well received without much customer friction.

But one of the best ways to encourage customers to move from credit cards to ACH is to add a credit card surcharge.

If customers can pay by ACH without the surcharge or use a credit card and pay the additional processing cost, ACH suddenly becomes a much more attractive option.

At the same time, having the ability to disable surcharging at the customer or transaction level is very important in order to manage your customer relationship.

You may have VIP customers, large customers or specific categories of customers where you simply do not want to apply the surcharge.

Nimbus NetSuite ACH Solution

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The Nimbus Netsuite ACH Payment Solution is designed for businesses seeking a secure, cost-effective alternative to credit card payments.

It is fully integrated with our ePay Payment Links solution and enables AR bank transfers directly within NetSuite.

The goal is simple: reduce transaction costs, improve cash flow and minimize fraud exposure without creating a disconnected payment process outside of NetSuite.

Nimbus ePay provides the ability to accept both Credit Card and ACH payments.

Payments can be taken against a NetSuite Estimate/Quote, Sales Order or Invoice.

Estimate/Quote

When an ACH payment is received and confirmed, the Estimate is converted to a Sales Order and a Customer Deposit is used to record the payment and link it to the Sales Order.

Sales Order

When the ACH payment is received and confirmed, a Customer Deposit is created and linked to the Sales Order.

Invoice

When the ACH payment is received and confirmed, a Payment is created and linked directly to the Invoice.

Deposit

Once the ACH payment clears, a Deposit record is automatically created in order to help automate the A/R reconciliation process.

Nimbus ePay also provides the ability to:

• Enforce full payment or allow partial payments.
• Restrict a payment to a specific Sales Order or Invoice.
• Allow the customer to select which open Invoices they want to apply the payment to.
• Send manually or automatically generated branded ePay emails on specific transactions.
• Automatically generate an ePay transaction URL.
• Embed that URL on a NetSuite Advanced PDF template as a Pay Online button.
• Use the generated payment URL in other ways for customer payment acceptance.

The important part is that the payment is correctly recorded within your NetSuite environment without the need to manually record and reconcile ACH transactions that are hitting your bank account.

Credit Card Surcharging

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The second major way to reduce credit card processing expense is surcharging.

Adding a surcharge to a credit card transaction simply means that the merchant adds a fixed percentage charge to the transaction when the customer elects to pay using a credit card.

For example, a merchant might add a 2.5% credit card surcharge.

Instead of the merchant absorbing the full credit card processing expense, the cost is passed on to the customer choosing to pay with the credit card.

There are, however, important legal and card-brand rules that have to be followed.

Surcharging Laws

As of early 2026, credit card surcharging is prohibited in a few states, most notably:

• Connecticut
• Maine
• Massachusetts
• California

Puerto Rico also prohibits surcharging.

California's SB 478, effective July 2024, restricts surcharges.

States including Florida and Texas historically had bans, although those restrictions are often considered unenforceable due to court rulings.

There are also states where surcharging is restricted or conditional.

Colorado

Colorado limits surcharges to 2%.

New York, New Jersey, Nevada and South Dakota

Surcharges cannot exceed the actual cost of card acceptance.

Oklahoma

Oklahoma recently changed its laws and allows surcharges up to 2%.

Where surcharging is legal, merchants must clearly disclose the surcharge at the entrance and point of sale, and it must appear as a separate line item on the receipt.

Even in states that prohibit surcharging, businesses are generally allowed to offer discounts for cash payments.

Credit card surcharge laws are subject to ongoing litigation and legislative changes, so current state laws should always be verified.

Debit and Prepaid Cards May Not Be Surcharged

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This is extremely important.

Debit and prepaid cards may not be surcharged.

Visa and Mastercard rules prohibit surcharging debit and prepaid card transactions.

Visa expressly states that merchants must limit surcharging to credit cards only. Debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged.

Mastercard similarly states that surcharge fees are not allowed on Debit Mastercard or Mastercard prepaid cards.

The Durbin Amendment also defines "debit card" to include a general-use prepaid card. That definition can be useful when establishing that prepaid products fall within the debit-card category, although this section itself is not a federal prohibition on merchant debit surcharges.

Colorado has an especially strong statutory requirement. C.R.S. 5-2-212 provides that a seller or lessor shall not impose a surcharge when a customer pays using a debit card, whether or not a PIN is used or the transaction is processed as debit.

Credit Card Surcharging Guidelines

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There are also card-brand limitations.

Surcharges cannot exceed approximately 3% to 4%, depending on the card brand and applicable rules, and they cannot exceed the merchant's actual cost of acceptance.

The general card-brand limits are:

• Visa: 3% maximum
• Mastercard: 4% maximum
• Discover: 4% maximum

American Express does not set a specific fixed percentage cap in the same way as Visa or Mastercard.

Instead, Amex relies on an Equal Treatment policy.

If a merchant applies a surcharge to American Express, it must apply the same or a higher surcharge to the other credit card brands it accepts. A merchant cannot single out Amex and charge it a higher fee.

Merchants must therefore take Equal Treatment into account when establishing their surcharge.

The surcharge also cannot exceed the merchant's actual cost of processing, which is often referred to as the Merchant Discount Rate, or MDR.

Per the card brands, merchants are prohibited from making a profit from surcharging.

The typical way to handle this is to set the surcharge percentage below the merchant's actual effective credit card rate based on its processing statements.

For example, if the merchant's effective processing cost is higher than 2.5%, it might establish a fixed surcharge of 2.5%.

Why Use a Fixed Surcharge?

Some processors provide a surcharging service that automatically calculates the surcharge based on the exact interchange rate of the particular card being used and dynamically increases the transaction amount.

There are problems with that approach.

The customer cannot necessarily see what the surcharge will be up front.

There is usually no feedback loop into the originating billing system, such as Quickbooks or NetSuite.

Therefore, a fixed surcharge percentage calculated and managed in the billing system is the best approach.

It is transparent and predictable for the customer and can be properly integrated into the billing system.

Nimbus NetSuite Credit Card Surcharging

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The Nimbus NetSuite credit card surcharging feature is integral to our NetSuite ePay Payment Links solution.

If surcharging is enabled, it applies to all supported credit card brands:

• Visa
• Mastercard
• Discover
• American Express

Because Visa has a 3% maximum, the maximum Nimbus surcharge is therefore 3%.

Nimbus Netsuite credit card surcharging provides the ability to:

• Detect a Debit or Prepaid card and block surcharging.
• Disable surcharging at the Customer level.
• Disable surcharging at the individual transaction level.
• Enable surcharging on the Nimbus Credit Card Terminal.
• Enable surcharging through Nimbus ePay.
• Enable surcharging on direct NetSuite transactions.

That flexibility is important.

You may want surcharging enabled for the majority of customers but disabled for a VIP customer or a very large account.

Nimbus allows you to do that.

How Nimbus Records the Surcharge in NetSuite

Transaction surcharge amounts are dynamically added in NetSuite to ensure the correct GL is assigned and sales taxes are properly calculated, if applicable.

For NetSuite Sales Orders and Cash Sales, the Surcharge item is dynamically added to the transaction itself after the credit card charge goes through.

For NetSuite Invoices, the Surcharge item is correctly generated and applied to the Invoice(s) without affecting the actual invoice(s) as they may be in a Closed Period.

This means the surcharge is not simply something being calculated outside of NetSuite. It is properly reflected in the actual NetSuite transaction and accounting process.

Nimbus NetSuite ePay Payment Links

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Nimbus NetSuite ePay brings both approaches together.

Businesses can accept Credit Card and ACH payments directly through NetSuite Estimates/Quotes, Sales Orders and Invoices.

The solution provides the ability to:

1. Accept Credit Card and/or ACH payments.
2. Add a fixed percentage surcharge to Credit Card payments, for example 3%.
3. Take payment against a NetSuite Estimate, Sales Order or Invoice.
4. Enforce full payment or allow partial payments.
5. Restrict the payment to a specific Sales Order or Invoice, or allow the customer to select which open transactions to pay.
6. Send manually or automatically branded ePay emails.
7. Generate an ePay transaction URL that can be embedded on a NetSuite Advanced PDF template as a Pay Online button.

That gives the merchant the two tools that actually make a significant difference in credit card processing expense - ACH payments and credit card surcharging.

The Bottom Line

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There are really only two ways to significantly reduce credit card processing fees.

Shift customers to ACH and/or surcharge Credit Card transactions.

Yes, you can negotiate with your processor on its markup and fixed fees, and you may save some money.

But those savings are nominal compared with the potential savings from changing the way the payment itself is made.

ACH removes the credit card companies from the transaction and can dramatically reduce the processing fee.

Surcharging allows the merchant to stop absorbing all of the cost when a customer chooses to use a Credit Card.

And when both are properly integrated into NetSuite with Nimbus ePay, the merchant can offer both payment methods while keeping the payment, transaction and accounting process inside NetSuite.

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