10 Best Credit Card Processing Services in 2023

Leaders Merchant Services promises to try to at least meet, but in many cases beat, the rates of your previous processor. You’ll be asked to provide your two most recent monthly processing statements and the sales agent will try to offer a better deal overall. 

This makes Leaders Merchant Services a nice option if you’re already with a payment processor – you can use your current rates as a starting point on the negotiation table.

While merchants looking for their first payment processor won’t have existing rates to beat, they’ll still benefit from Leaders’ industry low processing rates, quick approval, and impressive features such as customer loyalty programs, business loans, and cash advances.

As for the actual payment processing services, Leaders Merchant Services offers reliable solutions for both in-person and online transactions, from all-in-one terminals to iPad and Android card readers that allow you to accept payments wherever your business takes you. Its terminals integrate with a range of e-commerce software. 

Leaders also offers 24/7 technical support, with an entire department dedicated to helping you effectively dispute chargebacks. If you’re a mid or high-risk merchant, this will likely save you a lot of money (and headaches) over time.

ProMerchant offers a great deal to the right business: quick approval, next-day payouts, and low monthly plan fees. The standout feature is its Zero Cost Processing plan, which is only available for retail businesses and restaurants. This plan allows you to pass credit card processing fees to your customers via a surcharge.

This means you get 100% of every payment you take – even interchange fees can be passed on to the customer. Because of this, ProMerchant better fits businesses with high sales volumes, who’d get the most out of saving on transaction fees. Keep in mind that you’ll still have to pay a monthly subscription, and the surcharge will slightly raise your prices.  

If your business isn’t in the retail or food industry, ProMerchant offers an interchange plus plan. This plan is also monthly with no cancellation fees and competitively priced transaction fees. Whichever plan you choose, your business will benefit from ProMerchant’s exceptional customer support.

If you’re looking for a payment processor that will tailor its fees and features to your business’s unique needs, PAYARC is your best option. Its client-centered approach, multiple payment models, and useful built-in tools make PAYARC suitable for most businesses, whatever their industry or size.

PAYARC offers membership and interchange-plus plans together with a cash discount program that allows merchants to pass processing costs to their customers. These plans are all competitively priced and come with technology-driven features such as built-in invoicing, enhanced data reports, and real-time sales and payment tracking.

Unlike other processors, PAYARC also makes it easy for businesses with an international clientele to securely accept payments for products/services they sell to clients worldwide. Another standout feature is special reduced rates for nonprofits and charities processing contributions.

Flagship Merchant Services offers same-day funding to your merchant account, regardless of whether the sales were made in-person or online. Most merchants will leave you waiting over 24 hours to have access to your earned funds, so this is a welcome add-on.

Same-day funding allows you to more flexibly manage the financial difficulties of running a business – you can more easily meet monetary obligations, ensure your inventory remains well-stocked, and so on. The same-day funding service does cost extra, but it’ll be well worth it for many businesses.

Flagship Merchant Services is also refreshingly easy to get started with – onboarding is straightforward and your account can be approved in just a few hours. That said, Flagship isn’t the most transparent processor when it comes to pricing. I’d recommend negotiating for a simple interchange-plus plan for the best deal.

Like Stax, CreditCardProcessing.com ditches percentage-based markups in favor of a simple monthly subscription plus flat transaction fee. While this transaction fee is quite high on its lower-volume plans, high-volume businesses get some of the cheapest transaction fees I’ve seen.

Sweetening the deal even further is the free Clover Mini terminal you get with the High Volume plan. This offers responsive software with tons of useful functionality. You can manage inventory, staff scheduling, and more, straight from the terminal. I rarely see Clover terminals offered for free, so this is a major perk of CreditCardProcessing.com’s High Volume plan.

In addition, every plan gives you free access to the premium Vindica service, which makes it easy to manage and optimize the selling of subscription services, thanks to detailed analytics and a user-friendly platform. Vindica also attempts to fix any failed payments automatically, helping to keep your customers happy and your revenue stable.

If you’re tired of credit card processors taking a sizable cut of every transaction, you’ll like Stax’s simple monthly payment model – you just pay a monthly subscription with no percentage-based markup. What’s more, it’s a beginner-friendly platform that’s easy to set up and start selling with, even if you have no prior experience.

While there is a small flat fee per transaction in addition to the wholesale interchange rates (which isn’t mentioned on the site), businesses can save with this payment model. If you’re earning over $8,000 per month, you may pay less than with a traditional processor that uses a percentage markup on every transaction.

Stax is a particularly good option for online selling, with an e-commerce platform that allows you to create a custom shopping cart in a few clicks. It also provides easy integrations for popular e-commerce and accounting platforms, though you’ll have to pay for some integrations. Its flexible API even lets you implement your own checkout system and create custom integrations.

Small to medium-sized enterprises will find a lot to love about Chase Payment Solutions. With no mandatory contracts, monthly fees, or hidden costs and simple interchange-plus pricing, this credit card processor is designed to keep your overhead low. You won’t miss out on any core features, either. Your merchant account comes with a range of software to help you grow your business, including a customer buying habits tracker.

Chase also stands out for providing rapid access to your funds. Next-day payouts come as standard, and Chase banking customers even get same-day payouts. You may have to pay a small monthly fee for your bank account, but this can be waived if you meet certain criteria that are fairly accessible for mid-sized businesses.

Please note that you will need to buy all the required hardware directly from Chase’s limited POS selection, which comprises proprietary devices that may not be reprogrammable in the future. The good news is that Chase frequently offers promotions on its device range, allowing you to obtain equipment for your premises (or field technicians) at a discounted price.

While it’s at the bottom of our list, POS Pros’ industry-specific approach to POS solutions offers a lot to businesses that rely mostly on in-person transactions. Restaurants, retailers, hotels, and healthcare practitioners can all benefit from this approach, which takes into account not just your business type, but also its size and unique processing needs.

During an initial consultation, a POS Pros specialist will recommend several point-of-sale equipment options. You’ll then be able to test the interface and features of each POS system during a free virtual demo. This personalized approach can help both new and established businesses avoid buying the wrong equipment.

While POS Pros offers interchange plus, tiered pricing, and cash discount plans for both brick-and-mortar and e-commerce merchants, it doesn’t post pricing and fees on its website. While this quote-only approach has its advantages, it can make it more difficult if you’re comparing multiple processors to determine which is your best option.

Square is a good solution for startups and small businesses. First of all, you can be selling with Square in just two minutes – there’s no lengthy vetting process to go through. If you’ve left setting up a payment processor until the last minute, this is one of the few processors that won’t delay the launch of your new business.

In addition, Square allows you to easily create a small business checking account, and gives you access to your earned funds instantly. Whenever you make a sale, you will be able to use that revenue without any waiting around. I can’t overstate how useful this can be to a new business.

Square offers transparent pricing which boils down to a percentage markup and a flat transaction fee, with different rates for online and in-person sales. These rates offer decent value to small businesses, but high-volume businesses can get a better deal with a payment processor offering a monthly subscription model.

Starting an e-commerce business isn’t easy. Not only do you have to select a good payment processor, you’ll also have to find a web hosting company that provides decent performance and store development tools. Helcim handles this for you by offering free web hosting and a store builder alongside its payment processing services.

This is great if you’re selling online, but the picture isn’t quite as rosy if you take payments in a brick-and-mortar store. Helcim only integrates with a limited range of third-party POS hardware, which doesn’t include any third-party card terminals. This means you’re forced to purchase its proprietary card reader outright.

Still, if you’re happy to use Helcim’s hardware, this all-in-one solution definitely makes things easier. Helcim’s platform is super user-friendly – every aspect of it, from store and checkout creation, to customer & inventory management, requires zero code and can be controlled with a few clicks. Best of all, Helcim doesn’t lock you into a contract – you can cancel at any time without paying a fee.