The merchant agreement
The rate sheet you were shown when you signed and the terms that govern ending the deal are often two different documents. Auto-renew is common, and the window to opt out can be narrow.
POS Contracts
Termination fees, equipment leases, and the clause most owners never read until they try to switch. Here is how to find your real number before you decide anything.
Free 30-min convo. Bring last month's statement and the agreement you signed.
Where it hides
Owners usually go looking for a single termination fee. In practice the cost of leaving is assembled from several places, and they are not in the same document.
The rate sheet you were shown when you signed and the terms that govern ending the deal are often two different documents. Auto-renew is common, and the window to opt out can be narrow.
Hardware is frequently a separate contract with its own term, sometimes through a third party, and it can outlast the processing agreement. This is the part that surprises people most.
Some agreements charge a flat amount. Others bill the months you have left, which means the cost of leaving depends entirely on when you leave. Those two structures produce very different numbers.
More than most owners assume. Fees get waived, terms get shortened, and a competing offer in hand changes the conversation with your current provider. It is worth knowing before you call them.
The comparison that matters
A termination fee feels large because you pay it in one go. What it should be measured against is the gap between what you pay now and what you would pay instead, multiplied by every month you stay.
Pay once
Cost of leaving
Termination fee, plus whatever remains on the equipment lease, plus the time it takes to switch over. A real number, and usually smaller than people fear once the lease is separated out.
Pay every month
Cost of staying
The difference between your effective rate and what you could be paying. It does not appear as a line item anywhere, which is exactly why it goes unnoticed for years.
Two questions, no sign-up. It gives you the second number so the comparison is possible.
Honest outcomes
We work with several processors and POS brands rather than one, so we do not need the answer to be a switch. Here is every way the conversation actually finishes.
Sometimes the exit cost is real and the rate you have is fine. If that is what the numbers say, that is what we will tell you, and you have lost half an hour.
Often the problem is not the platform you run on, it is the pricing you were given for it. That is worth establishing before you pay anything to get out.
If switching genuinely wins, we will show you what we can put in front of you and what the changeover involves. No recommendation is fixed before we have looked at your paperwork.
A free 30-min convo. Bring last month's statement and the agreement you signed, and you leave knowing what staying costs, what leaving costs, and which one we would pick.
Book a free 30-min convo