How to read your credit card processing statement Part 2

Today we’re looking at a pretty simple credit card processing statements, from a standard three tier pricing card processor.  Let’s see how how Payment Depot’s new member, A Chevrolet dealer in CA, was paying much higher fees and rates for their credit card processing before they switched.

You can see in the statement below that this Chevrolet dealer had total credit card transactions of $345,123.38 on this statement.

Now, on their $345,128.38 of total processed credit card transactions, they were charged $7,553.75 in fees, as you can see on this page below.  Does that seem high? It’s hard to know for sure until you do the math. Look at all these different rates and fees! How on Earth is a merchant supposed to know if he’s over paying?

When we divide his total credit card processing fees of $7553.75 into the amount processed, we can see that the effective rate on this statement was: 2.19%.

As you can see below, on page 10 of his statement, the Chevrolet dealer did a lot of debit transactions and was charged 1.9% on those instead of the actual interchange rate from Visa and Mastercard, which is .05%

That higher 1.9% rate on the debit card interchange rate cost the merchant an extra $600!

Remember on their previous statement, the effective rate was: 2.19%.  However, when the Chevy dealer switched to Payment Depot, their effective rate dropped to 1.54%.  This merchant saved over $1,000 on last month’s statement, even though they only sold about half the amount of the previous month, with a total of $158,207.91 in credit card transaction.

If they had switched a month earlier, they would have saved about $2,200 on their higher sales of $345,123.38.  That’s right – waiting one extra month cost this merchant $2200!

So what are you waiting for? Need help reading your credit card processing statement? We would love to help you! Send it to How to read your credit card processing statement Part 2