A question to ask before leaving a bundled point of sale (POS) system: can the card fee, the software fee and the hardware cost show up as separate lines, so you can see what each one costs and negotiate or replace one at a time? This guide is about fees only. It shows where a small store pays, which lines to look for on Clover or any other provider, how much a switch can realistically save in a shop with small tickets, and when it will not save you much at all.
The short answer
- You pay in four places, not one. Card processing, a software subscription, hardware, and add-ons. A low card rate can hide a high software bill, and the reverse.
- Ask for the card fee in two parts. What the card networks and banks charge, and what the provider adds on top. That is interchange-plus, also called pass-through pricing.
- Debit and ticket size decide the savings in a store. In NPS’s 2026 pricing study the gap was widest online and on invoices and smaller in person. Very small tickets save little.
- Do not take our word, or Clover’s. Read Clover’s current pricing page and your own last three statements, and compare line by line.
- A switch has a price too. Check contract terms, who owns the hardware and how you get your item and customer data out.
Where a small store pays on a bundled POS
A bundled POS sells you the register, the software and the card processing as one package. That is convenient. It also makes it hard to see what any single piece costs. When an owner says “my fees are too high,” the problem can sit in any of these places:
- Card processing. The percentage and per-sale charge on each card payment. This is usually the biggest line, and it is the one most people mean when they say “fees.”
- Software subscription. A monthly charge for the POS software, often per register or per device. It is the same every month, whether you have a busy week or a slow one.
- Hardware. Terminals, a cash drawer, a receipt printer and a scanner. You may buy them, lease them or pay them off inside a monthly charge.
- Add-ons. Apps for loyalty, online ordering, delivery or reporting. Some are free and some carry their own monthly fee.
Other charges sit around the edges, such as dispute fees, fees for instant payouts, a monthly statement or compliance charge, and a fee for ending the contract early. None of these is unusual, and none is automatically a problem. The point is to write every line down, with its price, before you decide anything.
NPS already published a feature and price comparison of two retail systems, which you can read in Clover vs NPS POS System: Which POS Is Best for Small Retail Stores. This page asks a narrower question: if lower fees are the goal, what should you actually look at?
Two ways to price a card payment
Every card sale has three layers of cost. The first is interchange, a fee set by the card networks and paid to the bank that issued the customer’s card. The second is a set of smaller network fees paid to Visa, Mastercard and the others. The third is the provider’s markup, which is how the processor earns its living. The two common ways to price a payment differ in how they show you those layers.
Flat-rate pricing charges one percentage, often with a small fixed amount per sale, on every card. A debit card and a premium rewards card cost you the same. It is easy to understand and easy to predict. Our guide to the four merchant account pricing models says flat rate suits very small or brand-new businesses, and tends to cost more as volume grows.
Interchange-plus pricing, also called pass-through or cost-plus, passes the real interchange and network fees through to you at cost and adds a markup that is stated on its own line. A debit card costs less than a rewards credit card, and you can see both on your statement. The tradeoff is that the statement is longer and takes more effort to read. For a longer explanation, see where payment fees actually go and flat rate vs cost-plus: which costs less.
Two pricing models
Flat rate vs. interchange-plus: what each shows you
- How the rate works
- Flat-rate pricingOne percentage on every card
- Interchange-plus pricingReal interchange passed through at cost, markup on its own line
- Debit vs. rewards card cost
- Flat-rate pricingDebit and a premium rewards card cost you the same
- Interchange-plus pricingA debit card costs less than a rewards credit card
- Statement complexity
- Flat-rate pricingEasy to understand and easy to predict
- Interchange-plus pricingStatement is longer and takes more effort to read
- Best fit
- Flat-rate pricingSuits very small or brand-new businesses
- Interchange-plus pricingLets you see what each card costs
Flat rate can be the better deal at very small ticket sizes.
NPS also offers dual pricing and cash discount programs, which work differently. Instead of lowering the fee, they change how prices are shown to customers. They are not right for every store, and the rules about how prices must be displayed matter a great deal. Our dual pricing guide explains the difference between dual pricing and surcharging. If a provider offers either one, ask for the rules in writing.
What our 2026 pricing study says, and what it does not
In 2026, NPS published a pricing study that compares flat-rate pricing with interchange pass-through pricing. Read it with two cautions. It is a model built on published rate schedules, not a survey of real merchants. And it was written by a processor that sells pass-through pricing, so it favors the model we sell. The inputs are listed in the study so anyone can rerun them.
Three findings matter for a small store.
First, in-person savings are smaller than online savings. In the model, businesses selling online or by invoice paid 19% to 31% less on pass-through than on flat rate, across average tickets from $15 to $2,500. That range is for online and invoice sales, not for a counter in a shop. The study also says that in-person businesses with very small tickets, around $15 and under, save little by switching, because the per-sale charges take up more of each small sale. Flat rate can be the better deal at that size.
Second, debit cards drive the gap, but only some of them. Federal rules cap the fee on debit cards issued by large banks. In the study that cap is 0.05% of the sale plus 21 cents, with a 1 cent fraud adjustment. Debit cards from smaller banks are exempt from the cap and cost more. The study assumed that 35% of debit volume came from those exempt cards, so it does not treat every debit card as cheap. It also assumed that debit makes up roughly 40% of card sales at a $15 ticket, 35% at $40, 30% at $75 and 25% at $150. Those mix figures come from NPS merchant experience and are modeling inputs, not measurements of your store.
Third, the study did not model Clover. Its in-person flat-rate benchmark was Square’s published in-person rate, quoted as 2.6% plus 15 cents and accessed in October 2026. Your Clover plan may be different. That is why the next section tells you what to read rather than quoting a number for Clover.
The study makes no promise for your store, and neither do we. It says what happens in a model with stated inputs. Your statement decides your real cost.
The fee lines to look for on Clover, or on any provider
We do not quote Clover’s prices on this page. Plans, hardware and fees change, and the provider’s own current pricing page is the only reliable source. Open that page, open your latest statement, and fill in this list.
- The card rate. Is it one flat percentage, or does it change by card type? Is there a separate rate for cards typed in by hand or for online sales?
- The per-sale charge. A fixed amount on every sale matters more when your tickets are small.
- The monthly software fee. Is it per register, per device or per location? What do you pay for a second or third terminal?
- Hardware. Is it bought, leased or financed? What happens to it if you cancel?
- Add-on fees. List every app you use and what each one costs per month.
- Payout and dispute fees. What does an instant payout cost, and what does a chargeback cost you?
- Contract terms. The length of the agreement, automatic renewal, and any early termination charge.
- Lock-in. Can you use a different processor with the same register, or does the register only work with one?
The last question is the one most owners skip. If the software and the processing come as one package, you cannot change one without changing the other. A setup where you can change the processor without changing the register gives you bargaining power the next time your rates go up.
If you already have a quote from a competitor, put it in the same eight lines and compare. For a longer list of questions to ask any provider, see 20 critical questions to ask your payment processor before signing.
Find your own number first: the effective rate
Before you compare anyone, work out what you pay now. Your effective rate is your total processing fees for a month divided by your total card sales for the same month. NPS’s guide to reading your merchant statement gives this example: $1,400 in fees on $40,000 in sales is an effective rate of 3.5%. The same guide says a rate above 2.5% may mean you are paying too much, and that retail businesses selling to consumers often land between 2.0% and 2.7% depending on the mix of debit and credit cards. Treat those as rough guideposts, not rules. A store with mostly debit sales should land lower, and one with a lot of keyed or online sales should land higher.
Two cautions. Count only processing fees in the top number if you want to compare processors, and keep the software and hardware charges as a separate total. Then look at three months, not one, because a single month can be distorted by a holiday, a refund wave or one unusually large sale. NPS suggests about 90 days of data for exactly that reason, and we explain how in how much are you really paying Stripe, Square, PayPal or QuickBooks. The same approach works for any flat-rate dashboard.
NPS offers a free statement review, and you can compare it with your own read. You are under no obligation to switch.
What you can do besides leaving
Leaving is one of several moves, and not always the first one.
- Ask for the pricing in writing and push back. If your rate was set when your volume was small, a larger store can ask for a review.
- Remove the extras. Cancel apps and extra devices you do not use.
- Move processing, keep the register. If your register can work with another processor, you can change only the card fee. Confirm this before you count on it.
- Change both. Move to a register and a processor that are priced separately, so you can compare each one on its own.
If you change both, NPS sells its own retail POS. Our earlier comparison describes it as built for convenience stores, liquor stores and small food retailers, with built-in support for EBT, WIC, ID scanning for age-restricted sales and a DoorDash integration. Whether those features matter to you depends on what you sell. Read that comparison, compare the features against your own list, and then ask us for a written quote.
When a switch saves you very little
An honest answer to “will I save money?” sometimes is “not much.” A switch tends to save little when:
- Your average sale is very small, around $15 or less, so the per-sale charge dominates the bill.
- Your monthly card volume is low enough that a few dollars in fees is all that is at stake.
- You are new and want the simplest possible setup while you learn the business.
- Your current provider’s software is doing something important that a replacement would not do.
In those cases, staying put and trimming the extras may be the better move. We would rather tell you that than sell you a switch.
A checklist before you switch
- Print your last three statements and calculate the effective rate for each.
- Fill in the eight fee lines above for your current provider and for any quote.
- Find out who owns your hardware and what canceling costs.
- Export your item list, prices and customer data, and confirm the format you will get.
- Ask the new provider how your existing inventory will be loaded and who does it.
- Plan the cutover for a slow day, and keep the old system available for a short overlap.
- Ask who you call, and how fast someone answers, when a terminal fails on a busy Saturday.
Before you switch
Seven things to do before switching POS providers
- Print your last three statements and calculate the effective rate for each.
- Fill in the eight fee lines for your current provider and for any quote.
- Find out who owns your hardware and what canceling costs.
- Export your item list, prices and customer data, and confirm the format you will get.
- Ask the new provider how your existing inventory will be loaded and who does it.
- Plan the cutover for a slow day, and keep the old system available for a short overlap.
- Ask who you call, and how fast someone answers, when a terminal fails on a busy Saturday.
Common mistakes when shopping for lower fees
- Comparing only the headline rate. A lower percentage with a higher monthly software fee can cost more in total.
- Ignoring hardware. A free terminal is rarely free. Ask how it is paid for.
- Counting the best case. A quote built on the cheapest card type will not match a statement full of keyed and rewards cards.
- Skipping the contract. A cheaper rate with a long term and an early cancellation charge is a trap if the service turns out badly.
- Forgetting support. A saving of a few dollars a month does not help if you cannot reach a person when payments stop.
For the full picture across every sales channel and average ticket, read our guide to cheapest payment processing in 2026.
Choosing between providers more broadly? Our guide to the best payment processors compares ten of them by business type.
Who wrote this, and where NPS fits
Nationwide Payment Systems (NPS) publishes this guide. We are a payments company, in business since 2001, and we sell merchant accounts and point of sale systems, so we are not neutral. We do not publish one universal rate, because pricing depends on volume, ticket size, card mix and risk. We offer interchange-plus (cost-plus) and simplified pricing, dual pricing programs for stores that want them, and a retail POS. You can browse the full library of payments guides, or contact our team for a second opinion on a quote.
We are not the right fit for everyone. If you have very small tickets, very low volume, or a setup that works and a rate you can live with, you may be better off where you are. We do not link to competitors or quote their current prices, because those change. Read each provider’s own pricing page.
Bottom line
A lower-fee setup for a small store comes from seeing each cost on its own line: the card fee, the software, the hardware and the add-ons. Ask for interchange-plus pricing if you want to see what each card costs, remember that in-person savings are smaller than online savings and small tickets save little, and check the contract before you move. Read Clover’s current pricing page, read your own statements, and compare line by line. If you would like a second opinion, contact our team, and if staying put is the better answer for you, we will say so.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a Clover alternative with lower fees?
Often, but it depends on your card mix, your ticket size and what you pay for software and hardware. Start by writing down every fee line on your current plan, then compare a written quote line by line. In the NPS 2026 pricing study, savings from pass-through pricing were smaller in person than online.
What is interchange-plus pricing?
It is a way of pricing card payments where the provider passes the real interchange and network fees through at cost and adds a markup that is shown on its own line. It is also called pass-through or cost-plus pricing. Debit cards cost less than rewards credit cards, and your statement shows both.
Will I save money if my average sale is small?
Maybe not. The NPS 2026 pricing study, a model rather than a survey, says in-person businesses with tickets around $15 and under save little by switching, because per-sale charges take up more of each sale. Flat rate can be the better deal at that size.
Is every debit card cheap to accept?
No. Federal rules cap the fee on debit cards from large banks, which in the study is 0.05% plus 21 cents with a 1 cent fraud adjustment. Debit cards from smaller banks are exempt from the cap and cost more. Your real mix decides your cost.
What should I ask before leaving a POS provider?
Ask who owns the hardware, what the contract term and early cancellation terms are, whether you can export your item and customer data, and whether your register can work with a different processor. Also ask how quickly a person answers when something breaks.
How can NPS help me compare?
Send us a recent statement. NPS offers a free statement review. You can compare it with any offer you have.
