Merchants pay ZERO. Full stop.
Compliant surcharge & dual-pricing programs move card fees to the cardholder — your effective rate lands at 0.00%, with orchestration and compliance doing the heavy lifting.
this year (est.) $0
Drag the slider.
Watch your fees vanish.
Estimate at ~2.95% blended cost. Actual savings depend on card mix, ticket size & program. Debit/prepaid are not surcharged.
The fee never lands on you.
Zero cost isn't a discount we eat — it's a compliant program that shifts the card-acceptance cost to the person choosing to pay by card, exactly as the card brands and your state allow.
One clear price at checkout
Cardholders see a transparent card price and a cash/debit price. The choice — and the disclosure — happens before they pay, in plain language.
The program applies itself
MerchantZero calculates a compliant surcharge or dual price, enforces brand caps and debit exemptions in code, and records the disclosure at authorization.
You're funded for the full ticket
The acceptance cost is covered by the surcharge. You settle the entire sale, and your effective processing rate lands at 0%.
Zero cost is the offer.
Orchestration is the engine.
Most "free terminal" programs are a single processor and a hope. MerchantZero is a payment orchestration layer — routing, recovery, and compliance running on every transaction.
Smart routing, 45+ processors
Every transaction takes the cheapest, highest-approval path across our processor network, with TSYS and IoniaPay at the core.
Compliance enforced in code
Surcharge caps, debit and prepaid exemptions, state rules, and card-brand registration are handled and monitored for you — not left to a footnote.
Built for hard-to-place merchants
High-risk and regulated verticals others decline — subscription, nutra, CBD, firearms, travel, cross-border, and Web3-adjacent — get a real home.
Saga orchestration & retries
Idempotent, recoverable payment flows with automatic retry and failover, so a processor hiccup never turns into a lost sale.
Flight-recorder visibility
Every authorization, decline, route, and retry traced end to end. When you need to ask "what happened," there's an answer, not a shrug.
Next-day funding, where eligible
Faster settlement keeps cash flow moving, with a unified dashboard across every account and processor you run.
Zero cost is a program,
not a loophole.
Surcharging is governed by card-brand rules and state law, and both change. MerchantZero registers your program, enforces the rules at the point of sale, and watches for changes so you stay clean — even as you scale across states.
We handle Visa and Mastercard surcharge registration and the required notices before you switch on.
Surcharges are held within brand caps on every transaction, with no manual math to get wrong.
Debit and prepaid cards are never surcharged. The platform detects card type and exempts them.
Where surcharging isn't permitted, we run a compliant dual-pricing or cash-discount model instead.
Resell zero cost.
Keep your residuals.
Board merchants others decline, lead with an offer that closes itself, and own the relationship. Real-time portal, fast underwriting, and revenue share that respects your book.
Become a partner →Questions merchants actually ask.
Yes, when it's done right. Compliant surcharging is permitted by Visa and Mastercard and in most U.S. states, subject to registration, caps, disclosure, and debit exemptions. Where a state restricts surcharging, we run a dual-pricing or cash-discount model instead. MerchantZero manages registration and enforces the rules so your program stays compliant — this page is informational, not legal advice.
Customers who don't want the card price can pay by cash or debit and avoid it entirely — and clear, up-front disclosure is exactly what keeps the program compliant. Most merchants see the program normalize within the first billing cycle, especially in verticals where it's already standard.
Debit and prepaid cards are never surcharged. MerchantZero detects card type at authorization and automatically exempts them, so you stay on the right side of the rules without thinking about it.
That's the core of what we do. Subscription, nutraceutical, CBD, firearms, travel, cross-border, and Web3-adjacent businesses are welcome. With 45+ processor integrations and smart routing, we place merchants single-processor shops turn away.
Standard merchants typically board within 24–72 hours after underwriting. High-risk applications take a little longer depending on documentation. Get a quote and we'll give you a realistic timeline for your vertical up front.
You still pay zero. Where surcharging isn't permitted, we deploy a compliant dual-pricing or cash-discount program that reaches the same outcome through a different, allowable mechanism. The platform picks the right model for where you operate.
Send us your volume and vertical. We'll come back with a real quote, an honest timeline, and the program that fits where you operate.