Why do we ask for your merchant statement?
When you are talking to us, one of the questions we typically ask is to see your merchant statement. This may feel odd to share your current pricing with us, or like we are asking for private information, however, in reality pricing for payment processing is highly variable. Every business operates differently, and factors like industry type and location, pricing model, card mix, transaction volumes, and international payments all play a significant role in determining costs.
Here’s why seeing your merchant statement when pricing payment processing is crucial for getting you the best deal.
What is a merchant statement?
A merchant statement is a monthly report provided by a payment processor that details a business’s transaction history, processing fees, card mix, chargebacks, and other relevant payment data. It serves as a financial snapshot, helping businesses understand their payment costs and enabling us at GreenPay to offer you the best possible pricing.
Different industries have different costs
Not all businesses are priced the same when it comes to payment processing. Some industries are considered higher risk due to chargeback potential or fraud exposure. For example:
Retail businesses processing in-person transactions typically have lower fees than online businesses due to the lower risk of fraud.
High-risk industries (e.g., travel, adult entertainment) may face even steeper costs.
By reviewing your statement, we can ensure that you’re being priced appropriately for your industry rather than offering a one-size-fits-all rate.
Card mix impacts pricing
Not all cards cost the same to process. Your merchant statement reveals the types of cards your customers use, which significantly impacts pricing.
If your business processes a high percentage of premium or corporate cards, your rates will naturally be higher than a merchant dealing primarily with eftpos or debit transactions.
There are different pricing models
Typically in order to make our pricing easy to understand and compare, we match your pricing model to what you are currently on. You can see a deep dive on the different pricing models in our recent blog.
That means that we need to understand what pricing model you are currently on, and the easiest way to do this is to see your statement.
International cards are more expensive to process
If your business accepts a significant number of payments from international customers, processing costs will be higher as these cards are more expensive to process. For example:
A local cafe only accepting domestic Visa and Mastercard transactions will have lower costs.
A software company processing payments from customers in multiple countries will see additional fees for currency conversion and international interchange.
Your merchant statement allows us to factor in these additional costs when quoting a competitive rate.
We need to know what to beat
Many businesses come to us looking for better rates, but without a merchant statement, it’s difficult to determine how much they’re currently paying. Processors often bundle fees or use complex pricing structures, making it hard to compare apples to apples. By reviewing your current costs, we can identify hidden fees and markups and provide a transparent comparison.
This ensures that we offer meaningful savings, not just a “headline rate” that looks good but doesn’t actually save you money.
If you’d like us to review your pricing and see if we can find you a win, reach out to our friendly sales team.