[tfitz237]

What are you comparing this to that makes you think it is nuts?

Square's is 2.6% + $0.10

Paypal's is 2.7%

Fees directly from the merchant card issuers (Visa, Mastercard, etc) are sometimes lower (ranging from 1.4% - 2.6%, and even 3.5% for AmEx) but Stripe is a service that is on top of those fees , and any merchant will add on top of those fees as well.

[xtracto]

> Fees directly from the merchant card issuers (Visa, Mastercard, etc) are sometimes lower (ranging from 1.4% - 2.6%, and even 3.5% for AmEx) but Stripe is a service that is on top of those fees , and any merchant will add on top of those fees as well.

The way it works for "the networks" (Visa, Mastercard, Amex) is that they have several "interchange rates" ( https://www.helcim.com/us/pricing/visa-interchange-rates/ ) which vary depending on the risk of the card [transaction].

"Flat fee" card payment providers win by setting an average flat-fee that they believe will be higher than the mixed (average) interchange range of the payers. Also, lower card rates can be obtained capturing what is called "level 2" or "level 3" data ( https://www08.wellsfargomedia.com/assets/pdf/small-business/... ).