Why I Wrote "How to Stop Overpaying for Credit Card Processing"

For the past several years, a big part of my work has been sitting across from business owners and reading their merchant statements with them. Restaurant owners, retailers, contractors, salons, auto shops, professional offices. Different businesses, different processors, different statements. And yet, over and over, I saw the same patterns.

Fees with official-sounding names that weren't tied to any real cost. Pricing structures designed to be impossible to compare. Rates that had quietly crept up since the account was opened. Equipment leases the owner didn't know they'd signed. Contracts that renewed automatically and charged a fortune to leave. And almost always, an owner who had no idea what they were actually paying, because nobody had ever shown them how to read the statement.

At some point I realized I was explaining the same things in the same way, one business at a time. So I wrote it down. The result is my book, How to Stop Overpaying for Credit Card Processing.

Why a former attorney wrote a book about processing fees

For twenty years I practiced law, much of it as a litigator. My job was to read documents that were written to favor one side, find what mattered, and explain it clearly to people who needed to make decisions. When I moved into payments, I discovered that merchant statements and processing agreements are exactly that kind of document. They're technically complete, deliberately confusing, and written by the side that profits from your confusion.

That background shapes the book. It's written the way I'd explain things to a client: plainly, without jargon, and focused on what you can actually do about it.

What the book covers

The book walks through how card processing actually works and where the money goes: what interchange is, what network fees are, and what your processor adds on top. It explains the main pricing models, including flat-rate, tiered and interchange-plus, and how each one can work for or against you.

It shows you how to read your statement and calculate your effective rate, the single number that tells you what you're really paying. It goes through the junk fees I see most often and how to spot them. It covers the contract terms that trap business owners, from automatic renewals and early termination penalties to equipment leases. And it explains the options for reducing or even eliminating your processing costs, including how to negotiate and when it makes sense to switch.

Who it's for

I wrote it for business owners who accept cards and suspect they're paying too much but don't know how to prove it. You don't need any background in payments. If you can read a utility bill, you can use this book. It's also useful for bookkeepers, office managers and anyone else responsible for keeping an eye on costs.

Why I'd write a book that might mean fewer clients

People sometimes ask why someone who works in payments would publish a guide teaching business owners how to evaluate processors. The honest answer is that I think the industry needs more transparency, and I'd rather work with clients who understand what they're buying.

When an owner understands their statement, they can tell the difference between a fair deal and a bad one. The good processors and advisors benefit from that. The ones relying on confusion don't. I'm comfortable being judged by an informed client.

What I hope readers take away

My hope is simple. I want business owners to stop feeling helpless about processing costs. These fees are one of the largest controllable expenses many businesses have, and yet most owners treat them as fixed, like the weather. They're not. With a little knowledge and the willingness to ask questions, most businesses can lower what they pay, sometimes significantly.

If the book helps one reader find and eliminate fees they didn't know they were paying, it will have done its job.

How to get it

How to Stop Overpaying for Credit Card Processing is available now on Amazon. You can find it through the Book page on this site.

And if you'd rather have someone walk through your statement with you, that offer stands. It's the same work that inspired the book, and it's still one of my favorite parts of what I do.

Ready to stop overpaying?

Get the book on Amazon, or send me a recent statement for a free review.