How a Quayside Café Cut £1,500 a Year off Card Fees
How a free statement review found £1,512 of annual savings for a busy independent coffee house — funded entirely by removing waste, with no change to how customers pay.
A busy independent coffee house on the quayside came to us frustrated with card fees that kept creeping up. They were tied to a national processor on a blended rate, with add-on charges they didn't understand and settlement that took three working days. Our free rate review read every line of their statement and found savings across the board — without changing a single thing about how their customers paid.
The Situation
The café had been with the same national processor for years. The rate looked simple on the surface — a single blended 1.75% — but the statement was peppered with extras: a £25/month terminal rental, 4p authorisation fees on every transaction, and a £9.99 monthly PCI charge.
On top of the in-store fees, they ran a separate online gateway for pay-by-link orders, billed on its own agreement at its own cost. Nobody had ever sat down and added it all up.
Settlement took three working days, which squeezed cash flow during a tight week, and whenever something went wrong, support meant joining a national call-centre queue with no idea who you'd get.
What We Found
Transaction Rates
- A 1.75% blended rate well above what their volume should command
- 4p authorisation fee charged on every single transaction
- No transparency on how the blended rate was actually made up
- No review or benchmark in the years since they signed up
Monthly Fees
- £25/month terminal rental on an ageing countertop machine
- £9.99 monthly PCI charge with no help to actually become compliant
- Add-on fees buried in the small print of the statement
- Fees that had crept upward over the length of the contract
Online Payments
- Separate online gateway for pay-by-link on its own agreement
- Online and in-store payments split across two providers
- Duplicate fixed costs across the two separate accounts
- No single view of total card processing spend
Settlement & Support
- Three working day settlement squeezing weekly cash flow
- Support handled by a national call-centre queue
- No named contact who knew the business
- Slow resolution when terminals or payments had issues
What We Delivered
Transparent Interchange++ Pricing
- Restructured processing onto transparent Interchange++ pricing
- Showed exactly what makes up every penny of the rate
- Cut the effective rate well below the old blended 1.75%
- Removed the per-transaction authorisation padding
Removed Waste & Fees
- Removed the £9.99 monthly PCI and non-compliance charges
- Included PCI compliance support at no extra cost
- Supplied a newer countertop terminal at lower rental
- Stripped out the add-on fees buried in the old statement
Bundled Online Gateway
- Bundled the online pay-by-link gateway into one agreement
- Brought online and in-store payments onto a single account
- Removed duplicate fixed costs across two providers
- Gave the owner one clear view of total processing spend
Next-Day Settlement & Local Support
- Enabled next-day settlement on every transaction
- Assigned a single local contact to look after the café
- Completed the full switch and go-live within 48 hours
- Replaced the call-centre queue with one local number to call
The Numbers
Adding up the savings across the rate, the removed PCI charge, the lower terminal rental and the bundled online gateway, the café now saves a confirmed £1,512 a year — money that goes straight back into the business.
Crucially, none of this changed how customers pay. The same cards, the same contactless, the same Apple Pay and Google Pay — just a fairer price behind the scenes.
There were no hidden fees, no surprise reviews, and no long lock-in dressed up as a discount. Just one clear, transparent agreement.
The Result
The café cut £1,512 a year off its card fees with no change to how customers pay — a saving confirmed line by line against their old statement.
Next-day settlement made an immediate difference to weekly cash flow, and the owner now has one local number to call instead of a national queue.
The whole switch was completed and live within 48 hours, with PCI compliance included as standard from day one.