Card fees vs. digital-dollar fees: what a small business actually pays

Fees are a small number on each sale, but they add up across a year. If you run a small business, it is worth knowing exactly what you keep. This post puts two ways of getting paid side by side, using real published numbers, and it is honest about where each one is the better fit.

The two price lists

For cards, we use Stripe's public US pricing page as the comparison. Stripe is one of the most widely used card processors, and its page lists 2.9% + 30 cents for a standard domestic card payment. Other processors vary, and Stripe's page can change, so check it yourself at stripe.com/pricing before you decide anything.

For digital dollars (USDC) through Access0x1, the fee is 1% of each payment, with a minimum of $0.30 on each one. These are the same numbers printed on our public record, read straight from the live system. Bookings, memberships, invoices and gift cards carry extra services and cost 2%.

What you pay on different sizes of sale

Two things stand out. On a $100 sale you pay about $3.20 with a card and $1.00 with us. On a $2,000 sale the gap is much wider, because the percentage does the work. On a very small sale, the $0.30 minimum matters most: on a $10 sale our fee is $0.30, a larger share than the 1% looks like. The minimum stops mattering at $30, where 1% is exactly $0.30.

What the table leaves out

A fair comparison needs the parts that do not fit in a table.

• Network cost. Sending a digital-dollar payment costs a small network fee on top of ours. On the networks we use it is usually small, but it is not zero, and it is not part of the numbers above.
• Cash-out cost. If you move your digital dollars into a bank account, the exchange or bank you use may charge you. Ask first. Cards pay out to your bank automatically, so that step is built in.
• Card extras. Card processors can add charges for things like international cards, currency conversion or disputes. Those depend on your account, so read your own statement.
• Your customers. A card works for nearly everyone. A digital-dollar payment needs a customer who has a wallet. This is the biggest practical difference.

Speed and reversals

A card payment can take days to reach your bank, and a card customer can dispute it weeks later. A digital-dollar payment reaches you in seconds, and once it is made, nobody can pull it back. That is good for a seller who has been burned by disputes, and it means you handle refunds yourself on your own terms. When you approve a refund, the customer collects it directly.

A worked example

Say you take 200 payments a month and the average is $60. By card, the fee on each is $2.04, which is $408.00 a month. With a payment link in digital dollars, the fee on each is $0.60, which is $120.00 a month. The difference is $288.00 a month before the network cost and any cash-out cost. If only a quarter of your customers pay this way, take a quarter of that saving. Be careful with your own estimate: use your real average sale and your real mix of customers.

So which should you use?

For most small businesses the honest answer is both. Keep taking cards for the customers who want to pay that way. Offer a payment link for the customers who are happy to pay in digital dollars, for large sales, and for customers in other countries where cards are slow or expensive. Every payment that comes in as digital dollars is one where you keep more of the sale.

Want to see how a link works? Read get paid in digital dollars with one link. Worried about the safety side? Read is my money safe. Questions are welcome on Telegram, and you can check that our services are up on the status page.