Which Payment Gateway
Should You Actually Use?
Most online businesses blindly default to standard Stripe or PayPal and leak thousands of dollars every year in avoidable 3% card fees and foreign tax penalties. Answer 5 simple questions to get your tailored payment blueprint.
Hybrid Pipeline: Stripe + ACH Direct Debit
Why This Setup Wins For Your Business:
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How To Route Your Customer Transactions
Blended Take Rate: ~1.18%Fee Wealth Leakage Radar & Profit Drag
Multi-Rail Arbitrage ("Switch & Save")
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Pass Fee to Client (Legal Surcharge Engine) Calculate zero-shortfall compliant markup & legal surcharge limits
• United States: Visa & Mastercard cap credit card surcharges at 3.00% (effective April 2023). Surcharging debit or prepaid cards is strictly illegal under federal operating rules.
• UK & European Union: Surcharging consumer debit and credit cards is prohibited under PSD2. B2B / corporate card surcharges remain permitted.
• Australia: Governed by RBA; surcharging is legally restricted strictly to the merchant's actual cost of card acceptance.
Client Invoice Message
Bookkeeping Journal Entry
Recent Calculations (Click to Restore)
What To Do Next (3-Step Implementation Plan)
Why 80% of Online Businesses Overpay on Processing Fees
Payment processing is designed by banks and merchant aggregators to be opaque. Here is the mathematical truth behind transaction routing and fee leakage.
The $5.00 ACH Cap Secret
Stripe and PayPal charge flat 2.9% to 3.49% on credit cards. On a $5,000 client invoice, you lose $145.00 to card networks. Bank debits (ACH Direct Debit) are capped at $5.00 flat. Routing high-ticket payments to ACH saves you 96% in fees immediately.
Merchant of Record vs Direct
Selling software or digital downloads to EU/UK customers triggers foreign VAT registration from $1. An MoR (Paddle or Lemon Squeezy) takes 5% but eliminates $15,000+ in annual accountant fees and foreign tax filing obligations.
The 1.5% Foreign Card Spread
When an international customer pays with a non-domestic credit card, processors silently add a 1.5% cross-border fee plus a 2% currency conversion spread. Giving foreign clients local Wise Business bank details keeps 100% of your earnings.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why shouldn't I just use Stripe for everything? ▼
Stripe is fantastic for domestic credit cards, but paying 2.9% on large client invoices (> $500) burns hundreds of dollars compared to ACH ($5 cap). Additionally, Stripe does not act as a Merchant of Record, meaning you remain legally responsible for sales tax in 45 US states and VAT in 100+ countries.
How does ACH Direct Debit work for my clients? ▼
When sending an invoice via Stripe or QuickBooks, clients select "US Bank Transfer" instead of "Credit Card". They log into their online bank via Plaid in 15 seconds. The payment settles directly into your bank account within 2-4 business days with a maximum fee of $5.00.
Can I legally pass credit card fees to my clients? ▼
In the United States, Visa and Mastercard permit credit card surcharges up to a maximum cap of 3.00% (surcharging debit cards is strictly illegal). In the UK and European Union, surcharging consumer cards is prohibited under PSD2, but B2B corporate cards may be surcharged. Use FeeFlow's built-in Surcharge Engine for zero-shortfall calculations.