La réponse courte
Contractors who take cards on job sites should check their processing statement against the pricing they agreed to at least once a quarter. Find the fee schedule from sign-up, divide this month's total fees by total card sales to get your effective rate, and compare both with what you were told. Then look at how cards were taken: tapped or chip, swiped, or keyed in by hand. Keyed and swiped sales can cost more, and Mastercard added US network fees in 2026 for chip cards that end up swiped and for sales cleared without an approval. On a blended rate those changes may be folded into one number, so ask your processor in writing what changed.
Why contractor accounts drift
A contractor's card account is often opened in a hurry: a new truck, a new crew, a customer who wants to pay by card today. A mobile reader or phone app gets set up, it works, and the monthly statement goes to an inbox nobody opens. Meanwhile the card networks publish fee and program updates, usually each April and October, and processors adjust their own pricing on their own schedule. None of that is visible unless someone compares the statement with the deal. If your account was set up quickly and has not been reviewed since, this page is the checklist.
Step 1: find what you agreed to
| What you agreed | Where to find it today |
|---|---|
| Rate or markup per sale | Fee summary or pricing section of the statement |
| Frais par transaction | Same section, often listed per item or per authorization |
| Monthly, annual or device fees | Account or service fee lines |
| Rate for keyed or online sales | Separate line or a higher tier, if your plan has one |
| Notice terms for price changes | Your agreement and any notices your processor sent |
If you cannot find the fee schedule from sign-up, ask your processor to send the current one in writing. That document is your baseline.
Step 2: work out your effective rate
Take total fees for the month and divide by total card sales for the same month. The result is your effective rate, the share of every card dollar you pay to accept cards. Do the same for the same month last year, or the oldest statement you have. A flat headline rate and a rising effective rate together usually mean extra fees, more keyed sales, or a change in card mix, such as more business cards from commercial customers.
Work through it step by step: What is an effective rate
Step 3: check how cards are taken on site
How a card is accepted changes what it costs. Keyed sales often fall into card-not-present or key-entered interchange categories, which usually cost more than tapped or chip sales. Processor notices from Nexio and Wind River Payments say that from April 2026 Mastercard charges a 0.10% fallback fee in the US region when a chip card is swiped on a chip-enabled terminal instead of being read by chip, and a $0.09 force post fee when a sale is cleared without an approved authorization. On a job site with weak signal, a reader in offline mode or a sale finished as a forced entry is where that second fee starts. Ask crews to tap or insert first, and key a card only when there is no other way.
The fees behind each way of taking a card: Card-present vs card-not-present fees · Mastercard force post fee: what it is
What a blended rate does not show
Many mobile and flat-rate plans show one blended rate for every sale. That is simple, but it means network fee changes are not shown as separate lines. A network increase may be absorbed, passed on as a higher rate, or used as the moment to raise the rate by more than the network change. You cannot tell which from the statement alone. Ask your processor in writing whether your rate or any fee changed this year, which changes came from the card networks, and which came from the processor itself.
What changes for larger contractors, multi-crew firms and enterprise
A firm with several crews, branches or service lines should review statements by location and by device, not only in total. Give every crew its own device or user so keyed and swiped sales can be traced to a team. Commercial and government customers often pay with business or purchasing cards, so ask whether your setup sends Level 2 and Level 3 data with those sales. Business customers can often pay larger invoices by ACH. At enterprise scale, keep one owner for the quarterly review, have finance compare each location's effective rate, and check that your contract says how network fee changes are passed through and how much notice you get for processor price changes.
For business customers and larger invoices: Level II and III card data · Trades and contractors: deposits, balances and cancellations
Send it to us
CELER Merchants is an independent agent, not a processor. Send us your latest statement and we will compare it with the pricing you agreed to, show your effective rate, and mark any line worth questioning. Every number we show comes from your own statement. The review is free and there is no obligation.
Points clés à retenir
- Compare today's statement with the fee schedule you signed
- Effective rate = total fees divided by total card sales
- Tap or insert chip cards; avoid keying and swiping where you can
- Mastercard added US fallback and force post fees in April 2026
- On a blended rate, ask in writing what changed and why
Guides connexes
Sources
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