Free Statement Audit

Sample Review

What a Real Cost Comparison Looks Like

Based on a $50k/month flat-rate merchant. Toggle the equipment option to see how the numbers change.

PROCESSING COST REVIEW

STATEMENT UNDER REVIEW

CASE FILE NO.
001

Merchant Type: Flat-Rate Business Statement Period: May 1 – May 31, 2025

SUMMARY OF CHARGES YOUR CURRENT PROCESSOR CRANE PROCESSING

Processing rate 2.60% 2.29%

Processing fees $1,300.00 $1,145.00

Transaction fees $50.00 $45.00

Platform / access fee ⓘ Hidden / Varies $19.99

Equipment ⓘ $144.00Software/Terminal Rent from $20/moor Buy upfront

Junk fees & surcharges ⓘ ~$257.00 —

MONTHLY TOTAL $1,751.00 $1,229.99*

*Includes $19.99 platform fee + $20/mo equipment rental

EQUIPMENT OPTION (CHOOSE ONE)

Rent monthly

+$20.00/mo example

Includes device, support, replacement

Buy upfront

One-time payment from $399

No monthly equipment fee

FEE VERDICT

Potential savings: $521/mo

≈ $6,252/year

Includes Crane platform fee and example equipment rental.

✓ Clear pricing ✓ Platform fee shown upfront ✓ Local support ✓ No long-term contracts

Savings shown are estimates. Actual results will vary based on card mix, ticket size, and provider.

7 Audit Checks · Free Statement Review · Applied to Every Account

01 Hidden Rate Penalties Non-Qualified Downgrades

When a transaction doesn't qualify at the expected rate, the processor charges more — silently, with no line item on your statement. These "non-qualified" surcharges can add 0.5–1.5% on top of your advertised rate on a significant portion of your volume.

WHY IT MATTERS

These hidden penalties are one of the most common sources of margin leakage — and they rarely appear by name on your statement. We check the downgrade percentage and the surcharge amount for every account we review.

02 Debit Processing Costs Network Routing

Debit transactions can run through multiple networks — Visa, Star, NYCE, Pulse — with very different costs. Processors often select the routing that maximizes their margin, not yours. Under the Durbin Amendment, you have the right to least-cost routing on debit. Most merchants aren't getting it.

WHY IT MATTERS

Debit processed on the wrong network can carry rates closer to credit — on what should be your lowest-cost transaction type. If debit is a significant portion of your volume, this can be material.

03 Tip Adjustment Handling Restaurants & Bars

When a tip is added after authorization, the transaction can re-qualify at a different — sometimes higher — rate tier depending on terminal configuration. If your terminal isn't configured to handle tip-adjusted transactions correctly, you're paying a penalty on every tipped ticket.

WHY IT MATTERS

For restaurants and bars, this affects a large share of daily volume. One misconfigured setting can cost hundreds per month. Most processors don't surface this — and most merchants don't know to check.

04 Batch Timing Auto-Downgrade Risk

Batches not settled within 24 hours of authorization automatically trigger rate penalties across all card networks. This is a hard rule, and it applies regardless of your agreement with your processor. If your terminal isn't auto-settling, you're paying more — every single day.

WHY IT MATTERS

One misconfigured terminal setting can silently downgrade every transaction. We check batch settlement configuration on every account we set up and review it on every statement audit.

05 Flat-Rate Spread Padding Bundled Margin

Flat-rate processors bundle margin into one percentage that applies to every card type equally. Cheap debit cards and expensive rewards cards get charged the same rate — which means you're significantly overpaying on debit while the processor profits from your best customers' premium cards.

WHY IT MATTERS

The more your customers use premium cards — travel rewards, corporate cards, cash-back cards — the more your processor profits. Crane's fixed rate of 2.29% + $0.09 per transaction is lower than what most flat-rate processors charge across all card types. We show you the exact difference on every estimate.

06 Junk Fees Monthly Statement Padding

Monthly statement fees, annual fees, IRS reporting fees, regulatory compliance fees, minimum processing fees — these line items are common on processor statements and many merchants pay them without realizing they're optional or negotiable. They add up fast: $5–$30/month each, across multiple line items.

WHY IT MATTERS

We've reviewed statements where the rate looked reasonable but the fee pile added 30–40% to the real monthly cost. Crane's pricing includes the platform fee — no hidden line items.

07 Card Mix Misalignment Rate vs. Reality

Your actual card mix — the ratio of debit to credit, basic to rewards, consumer to commercial — directly affects what you should be paying. A business with mostly debit transactions has a fundamentally different risk profile than one running mostly corporate cards. If your pricing doesn't reflect your card mix, you're either overpaying or at risk of a rate adjustment.

WHY IT MATTERS

We look at the card mix breakdown on every statement we review. High debit volume is one of the strongest indicators that a merchant can save significantly by switching to Crane's fixed-rate pricing.

These are the seven things we check on every statement we review. Want to know which apply to your account? Send us your statement or run the estimate now.

Free · No statement required · 60 seconds

What a Real Cost Comparison Looks Like

PROCESSING COST REVIEW

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