Payment UpdateWeekly

What changed in card fees this week, and what to do about it

Card fees, POS pricing and contracts for restaurant and shop owners in New York City, Westchester and Long Island. One story at a time, with the sources.

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Week of Oct 5

  1. Two Mastercard fees that were not on your statement in March. Force post and fallback Since April 1, 2026, Mastercard charges 9 cents on any force post transaction and a fallback avoidance fee when a chip card is swiped on the magstripe at a chip terminal.
  2. A tenth of a point off swipe fees, on paper. What the Visa and Mastercard settlement does for a New York restaurant The settlement trims posted credit interchange by 0.1 percentage point for five years and caps standard consumer cards at 1.25% for eight.

Week of Sep 28

  1. Free software, paid operations. What one brewery learned in its first year on Square A NerdWallet writer chose Square for her husband's brewery because it was $0 up front with published pricing and no contract.
  2. SumUp's new $49 POS Plus. Free POS is free until the shop gets busy SumUp launched POS Plus in the US on September 23.
  3. Toast moved its card rate again. Here is what it costs and what Section 6.2 lets you do A reported 20 basis point increase on card processing went to Toast merchants in August with 30 days of notice.
Charles Sepulveda

Chairperson of the Board, Xtraspots

Xtraspots is a payments broker and POS partner for restaurants and small shops in New York City, Westchester and Long Island. We benchmark card processing across six processors, read statements line by line, and put hardware you own on the counter.

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