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Specialist project

Payments Cost Review

"We have not looked at our card fees since we signed the contract."

Fixed price4 to 6 weeksCFO or PE sponsor

Context

Who it is for
Businesses taking roughly £1m to £50m a year in card payments. Restaurant groups, retail chains, e-commerce brands, and private equity portfolio companies where cards are most of the revenue.
Why it matters
Card pricing is usually agreed at onboarding and not looked at again. Volumes and card mix change, new fees appear, and statements mix scheme fees with the provider's margin, so the drift is hard to see.

Approach

First

Read the statements

Three to six months from each acquirer or PSP. My own AI tool extracts every fee line, and I check the output myself.

Then

Split fixed from negotiable

Interchange and scheme fees are fixed. The provider's margin and added fees can be negotiated, and I compare them with what a business of your size and card mix should pay.

Then

Put a number on it

What the gap costs you each year, fee by fee.

Finally

Fix it

Renegotiate, change the pricing structure or go to market. You get the numbers and the arguments, and I can join the negotiation if you want.

I spent most of my career on the pricing side: at Mastercard, Citi and Elavon, and then advising acquirers and PSPs at Edgar, Dunn & Company.

Deliverables

For a private equity sponsor, the same review can run across several portfolio companies.

Not included: running a switch, legal review of contracts, and fraud or payment operations.

  • Your effective rate, by provider and by card type
  • Every fee line, split into fixed and negotiable
  • A comparison with what a business like yours should pay
  • The annual saving, fee by fee
  • A recommended route, and the pack to negotiate with

Terms

Fixed price, and I take no commission from any provider. It starts with a free first look: send me three months of statements and I'll tell you whether a full review is worth doing. How I work →

Always open to a conversation.

martin@scalepointpartners.com
Or message me on LinkedIn.