If you sell to other businesses on Net-30 terms, a $1,500 invoice paid by card costs about $49.80 on a flat-rate processor, in our arithmetic from the Stripe and Square prices read on November 13, 2026. Cards can get you paid sooner, and the card price can be lowered. This guide shows what an invoice of $500 to $5,000 costs by card, how to decide between card, ACH and check, why business cards and Level 2 and Level 3 data change the math, and a made-up month of 60 invoices at $1,500 to show the method.
The short answer
- Invoices are large, so a card fee is real money. On a $2,500 invoice, Stripe’s listed prices come to $82.80, as our arithmetic shows below. A percentage fee grows with the invoice, so a wholesaler feels it more than a coffee shop.
- Offer more than one way to pay. Card, ACH and check each suit different customers. Let customers choose, and compare the card cost with the others before you decide how to present it.
- Business and commercial cards can cost more in interchange. Level 2 and Level 3 data can lower interchange. Ask any processor whether it supports them.
- Our study is a model. NPS’s 2026 pricing study finds interchange pass-through costs 19% to 31% less than flat rate for online and invoice sales across average tickets from $15 to $2,500. It was written by NPS’s CEO, and NPS sells pass-through, so we are not neutral.
- Check each processor’s own page. Prices change, and your own account may have different terms.
What card processing looks like on a Net-30 invoice
Net-30 means the customer has 30 days to pay after you send the invoice. That changes the cost problem. A retail store worries about the fixed part of a card fee, the 30 cents on each payment. A wholesaler worries about the percentage, because a percentage on $2,500 is real money.
Payment method trade-offs
Card, ACH, and check compared
| Payment method | Fee cost | Main trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Card | Percentage of invoice | Can get you paid sooner instead of on day 30 |
| ACH | Compare fee in writing | Bank-to-bank, no card involved; pricing differs by provider |
| Check | Little in fees | Costs time; can be lost, and a check can bounce |
When a customer pays an invoice by card, several parties take a cut. The bank that issued the customer’s card takes interchange. The card networks take a small assessment. The processor takes a markup. A flat-rate processor bundles all three into one headline price. Interchange-plus, also called pass-through, passes the real interchange and network fees through at cost and adds one markup written in your agreement. NPS explains the models in its guide to cheapest payment processing in 2026.
Pricing model choice
Flat rate vs. interchange pass-through
- What you see on your bill
- Flat rateOne bundled headline price
- Interchange pass-throughReal interchange and network fees plus one markup
- Business card cost
- Flat rateHidden; you pay one price regardless
- Interchange pass-throughInterchange line moves with the card type
- Level 2 and Level 3 data
- Flat rateNothing you send changes it
- Interchange pass-throughExtra data can show up as a lower number
For businesses selling online or by invoice, the study finds pass-through costs 19% to 31% less than flat rate across average tickets from $15 to $2,500.
The fees below come from each processor’s own page, as we read it on November 13, 2026. Open the page again before you rely on a number.
What a flat-rate processor charges on invoices of $500 to $5,000
As read on Stripe’s pricing page on November 13, 2026, Stripe lists 2.9% plus 30 cents per successful domestic card transaction, and Invoicing at 0.4% per paid invoice. That is 3.3% plus 30 cents all in. As read on Square’s fees page on November 13, 2026, Square lists 3.3% plus 30 cents for online sales and invoices. The two come out the same for invoices.
Here is our arithmetic for one paid invoice at four sizes, using Stripe’s prices. It is made-up math to show the method, not a promise about your account.
- $500 invoice: the card price is $14.80, the Invoicing fee adds $2.00, and the total is $16.80, which is 3.36%.
- $1,500 invoice: the card price is $43.80, the Invoicing fee adds $6.00, and the total is $49.80, which is 3.32%.
- $2,500 invoice: the card price is $72.80, the Invoicing fee adds $10.00, and the total is $82.80, which is 3.31%.
- $5,000 invoice: the card price is $145.30, the Invoicing fee adds $20.00, and the total is $165.30, which is 3.31%.
Flat-rate invoice cost
What a card fee costs on one invoice
- $500 invoice$16.80All-in total3.36% effective rate
- $1,500 invoice$49.80All-in total3.32% effective rate
- $2,500 invoice$82.80All-in total3.31% effective rate
- $5,000 invoice$165.30All-in total3.31% effective rate
The all-in percentage barely moves once an invoice is above $500, because the 30 cents matters less. The dollars keep climbing. A single $5,000 invoice paid by card costs $165.30 on those prices, and an invoice above that costs more.
Stripe’s pricing page also lists 0.5% extra for manually entered cards. If your office takes card numbers over the phone and types them in, that line applies. It is separate from the Invoicing fee.
A made-up month: 60 invoices at $1,500 paid by card
Take a wholesaler that sends 60 invoices a month, each $1,500, and every customer pays by card. That is $90,000 collected. This is made-up math to show the method, not a promise.
- Card price alone: $43.80 an invoice, or $2,628 a month.
- With Stripe’s Invoicing fee: $49.80 an invoice, or $2,988 a month. The Invoicing fee accounts for $360 of that.
- Over a year: $35,856, of which $4,320 is the Invoicing fee.
Now apply the study’s range to that same month. If interchange pass-through costs 19% to 31% less than flat rate, as the model finds for invoice sales, then 19% of $2,988 is about $570 a month and 31% is about $930. Over a year, that is roughly $6,800 to $11,100. That is our arithmetic, applying the study’s percentage range to a made-up month, and it is not a promise. The study’s own tickets stop at $2,500, so a wholesaler whose customers pay with company cards should test it. Your own statement settles the question.
Card, ACH or check: how to choose
Many wholesalers take all three. The right mix depends on your customers, so here is a plain way to decide.
Check
A check costs you little in fees. It also costs time. Someone opens the envelope, records it, deposits it, and watches it clear. A check can be lost, and a check can bounce. If many of your customers still pay by check, count the hours your team spends handling them.
ACH
ACH is a bank-to-bank payment. The customer sends money from their bank account, with no card involved. NPS offers ACH and publishes no rate. Compare the ACH fee, in writing, with the card figures above, because ACH pricing differs from one provider to the next. NPS covers it in its guide to ACH optimization.
Card
A card can get you paid sooner, instead of on day 30. For a small customer, a card may also be the only way they can stretch cash flow. That convenience is what you pay for, and the arithmetic above shows how much.
A practical way to set it up
- Put all three options on the invoice, with the card link and the bank option side by side.
- Look at your last three months of invoices. Note how many were paid by each method and the average invoice size.
- If your largest customers pay by card, ask them if they would use ACH on invoices above a set amount. Some will. Offer, do not force.
Business and commercial cards cost more, and Level 2 and Level 3 data can lower them
Interchange varies by card type. Business and commercial cards can cost more than a personal debit or credit card. A wholesaler selling to companies sees more of them than a store selling to the public, so it is worth knowing how your processor treats them.
The study says interchange varies by card type, that business and commercial cards can cost more, and that Level 2 and Level 3 data can lower them. In general terms, Level 2 and Level 3 mean sending extra detail about a sale along with the payment, and a business-to-business seller is the kind of business that can supply it. We will not promise a saving, because it depends on the card, the data you send and the processor. Do ask two questions of any processor: whether it supports Level 2 and Level 3 processing, and what it charges for it.
Under a flat rate, all of this is hidden. You pay one price whether the customer used a business card or a debit card, and nothing you send changes it. Under pass-through, the interchange line moves with the card, so extra data can show up as a lower number on your statement.
One caution on debit. Large-bank debit interchange is capped at 0.05% plus 21 cents, with a 1 cent fraud adjustment, and the cap does not apply to small-bank debit. See whether the debit cap applies to small-bank cards. For a wholesaler paid mostly by company credit cards, the cap matters less than it does for a store.
What the study found, and what it does not tell you
The study, “The Flat-Rate Tax,” 2026 Edition, was written by Allen Kopelman, the CEO of NPS. It is a model built from published rate schedules, not a survey. It prices the same mix of payments under flat-rate and interchange pass-through pricing, and every input is listed so you can rerun it.
For businesses selling online or by invoice, it finds pass-through costs 19% to 31% less than flat rate across average tickets from $15 to $2,500. For $50,000 a month in invoices at a $150 average ticket, it finds about $6,100 a year kept.
The study also says flat rate can still win for very small tickets, around $15 and under in person, and for brand-new, very low-volume businesses. A wholesaler with 60 invoices a month is not that business, but a wholesaler with five invoices a month might be closer. NPS publishes the model and also sells pass-through pricing, so test it against your own statement. NPS has a related post for businesses that bill by invoice, cheapest card processing for invoices and payment links.
How to find your own numbers
You need two or three recent months of processing statements, or a processor dashboard export.
- Total your card volume. Add the dollars collected by card in each month and the number of card invoices.
- Total your fees. Add every fee line, not only the percentage. Include monthly, gateway, statement, dispute and invoicing lines.
- Divide fees by volume. That is your effective rate. If it is near 3.3%, you are paying about what flat-rate prices imply.
- Ask for a written quote. Ask for the markup, any monthly fee, gateway and statement fees, whether Level 2 and Level 3 are supported, and the contract terms. A processor that will not write its fees down is telling you something.
Find your real rate
How to find your own numbers
-
Gather statementsYou need two or three recent months of processing statements, or a processor dashboard export.
-
Total your card volumeAdd the dollars collected by card in each month and the number of card invoices.
-
Total your feesAdd every fee line, not only the percentage.
-
Divide fees by volumeThat is your effective rate.
Questions to ask processors
Ask every processor these questions
- Ask for the markup in writing
- Ask for any monthly, gateway and statement fees in writing
- Ask whether Level 2 and Level 3 processing is supported
- Ask what the processor charges for Level 2 and Level 3
- Ask for the contract terms in writing
Our guide on how to read your merchant statement walks through each line, and how much you are really paying on Stripe, Square, PayPal or QuickBooks covers the same exercise across providers. To see where the money goes, read where Stripe fees actually go.
When staying on flat rate is fine
- You send only a handful of invoices a month, so the yearly fee is a small number.
- Most of your customers pay by ACH or check already, and cards are a convenience for a few.
The comparison starts to deserve your time when card is a large share of your collections and your invoices are in the hundreds or thousands of dollars, because the percentage is the number that grows. If you want more context, see how a restaurant, a retail store and a growing online store work through the same question.
You can also run your own numbers through our savings calculator.
Who wrote this, and where NPS fits
Nationwide Payment Systems (NPS) publishes this guide. We are a payments company based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in business since 2001, and we sell merchant accounts and invoicing software, so we are not neutral. We offer interchange-plus pricing, ACH, a payment gateway and Smart Invoicing, and we also offer flat-rate options. We do not publish a price list. The study we cite was written by our CEO. NPS offers a free statement review. Browse more in our payments guides.
We are not the right fit for every business. If you send only a few invoices a month, or your customers all pay by check or ACH, a simpler setup may cost you less.
Bottom line
For a wholesaler on Net-30 terms, the card fee is a percentage of a large invoice, about $49.80 on $1,500 at the Stripe and Square prices read on November 13, 2026, and about $2,988 in a made-up month of 60 such invoices. The cheapest setup usually offers card, ACH and check, prices the card option with care, and asks every processor about business-card interchange and Level 2 and Level 3 data. Pull your own statements, check each processor’s current page, and compare one written quote line by line. If you would like a second opinion, you can contact our team.
Frequently asked questions
What does card processing cost on a $1,500 invoice?
Our arithmetic, using Stripe’s prices as read on November 13, 2026: 2.9% plus 30 cents is $43.80, and the 0.4% Invoicing fee adds $6.00, so the total is $49.80, or 3.32%. Square’s fees page lists 3.3% plus 30 cents for invoices, which comes to the same $49.80. That is made-up math to show the method, not a promise about your account.
How should a wholesaler compare card, ACH and check costs?
ACH is a bank-to-bank payment with no card involved, and a check has no card fee at all, so compare their costs with the card figures above. Get the ACH fee in writing. Checks cost staff time, and some customers prefer cards, so offering all three is the simplest way to keep every customer.
Do business cards cost more than personal cards?
They can. Our study says interchange varies by card type and that business and commercial cards can cost more. It also says Level 2 and Level 3 data can lower interchange.
What are Level 2 and Level 3 data?
In general terms, they are extra detail about a sale sent along with the card payment, which can lower interchange on eligible business cards. Whether you save, and how much, depends on the card and the processor, so ask any processor whether it supports them and what it charges.
How much could pass-through save a wholesaler?
In the study’s model, 19% to 31% less than flat rate for online and invoice sales across tickets from $15 to $2,500. Applied to our made-up $2,988 month, that is about $570 to $930 a month, which is our arithmetic and not a promise. Business and commercial cards can cost more, so test it against your own statement.
Should I offer card, ACH and check, or only one?
Offering more than one is the simplest way to keep every customer. Look at how your last three months of invoices were paid, keep card for customers who rely on it, and ask your largest customers whether they would use ACH on bigger invoices. Offer, do not force.
Does NPS review my current statement for free?
Yes. NPS offers a free statement review.
