Plain-English breakdowns of fees, pricing models, and industry practices so you can make smarter decisions for your business.
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A 2026 Compliance Change A Major Change to How High-Risk Merchants Get Billed If you process in a category Mastercard treats as high-risk, the cost of staying registered is rising sharply in 2026 — and a couple of brand-new fees are about to appear on your statement. The change runs through the specialty merchant registration […]
Read Article →The Setup Trap Why Standard Restaurant Processing Doesn’t Fit a Caterer Catering payment processing gets miscast from the start. Because you serve food, you get lumped in with restaurants and handed a restaurant merchant account — but the money in a catering business moves nothing like the money in a restaurant. A restaurant runs a […]
Read Article →The Setup Trap Why Studios Hand Their Processing Rate to Their Software Dance studio payment processing almost always arrives bundled with the software. You sign up for Jackrabbit, Mindbody, DanceStudio-Pro, or iClassPro to handle registration, scheduling, and tuition, and the card processing comes baked in — Jackrabbit Pay, Mindbody Payments, or a narrow set of […]
Read Article →A New Line Item, As of April 2026 Mastercard Now Charges You Every Time a Sale Clears Without an Authorization As of April 1, 2026, there is a new Mastercard force post fee: nine cents on every transaction that clears without an approved authorization behind it. It is a small number per sale, and it […]
Read Article →The Setup Trap Why Junk Haulers Lose Money on Every Card Sale Junk removal payment processing usually arrives as an afterthought. You sign up for a hauling platform — Jobber, Housecall Pro, Docket — because you need scheduling, routing, and invoicing, and the card processing comes bundled in. It works, so you never look closely. […]
Read Article →The Setup Trap Why Locksmiths Get Flagged as High-Risk: And Frozen Locksmith payment processing tends to break in a way most trades never see. You open a standard merchant account — or sign up with an aggregator like Square or Stripe — and start taking cards on emergency lockout calls. Then a handful of customers […]
Read Article →The Setup Trap Why Coin and Bullion Dealers Get Frozen by Ordinary Processors Precious metals payment processing usually breaks in a predictable way. A coin shop or bullion dealer opens a standard merchant account — or signs up with an aggregator like Square, Stripe, or PayPal — runs a few large online orders, and then […]
Read Article →The Setup Trap Why Smoke Shop Payment Processing Breaks on Stripe, Square, and PayPal Smoke shop payment processing almost always starts the same way: a new shop signs up for Stripe, Square, or PayPal in a few minutes, runs sales for weeks, and assumes payments are handled. Then one morning the account is frozen, the […]
Read Article →The Setup Trap Why Firearms Payment Processing Breaks on Stripe, Square, and PayPal Firearms payment processing almost always starts the same way: a licensed dealer signs up for Stripe, Square, or PayPal in a few minutes, runs sales for a while, and assumes payments are handled. Then one morning the account is frozen, the funds […]
Read Article →Industry Insights A Country Club Runs Five Businesses Behind One Gate A country club isn’t one business — it’s five running at once: a pro shop, a grill and bar, a golf operation selling green fees and tee times, an events and catering calendar, and a membership office collecting dues. Each is a different kind […]
Read Article →Industry Insights A Licensed Studio Is Legitimate: Your Processor May Not Treat It That Way A licensed tattoo or piercing studio is a real, regulated business — health-inspected, permitted, often more compliant than the coffee shop next door. Like any tipped counter, the tip prompt has its own best practices — see tip screen best […]
Read Article →Industry Insights Your Grooming Software Probably Owns Your Payments Run a grooming salon, boarding kennel, or doggy daycare and you almost certainly run it on software — MoeGo, Gingr, DaySmart, Pawfinity — that schedules the appointments, stores the pet records, and, increasingly, processes the cards. And because grooming is a tipped service, how that tip […]
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