Payment processing guides

Guides on accepting payments, processing costs and choosing providers, with sources.

• ACH Payments for Small Business

  How ACH bank payments work for a small business: credits and debits, settlement timing, dispute windows and the ACH fees Stripe, Square and PayPal publish.

• Authorization Holds and Capture

  What an authorization hold is, how long Stripe says holds last for cards, what capture means, and why a pending charge can drop off or turn into a dispute.

• How a Visa Card Dispute Works

  Step by step through a Visa card dispute: who does what, the four dispute categories and numbered conditions, and what accepting or contesting means.

• Card Processing With No Monthly Fee

  Which providers publish no monthly fee for card processing, what you pay per sale instead, and when a paid plan costs less, with worked examples.

• Chargeback Fees: What Each Provider Publishes

  The dispute and chargeback fees Stripe, PayPal, Square, Helcim and QuickBooks publish, with a worked monthly example and what the fees do not cover.

• Chargeback Ratios and Monitoring Programs

  How Visa and Mastercard measure disputes, the thresholds Visa publishes, what a reserve is, and how providers react when disputes rise.

• Cheapest Credit Card Processing

  How to find the cheapest credit card processing for your business: effective rate, plan fees, volume, payment mix and ways to lower your costs.

• Credit Card Processing Companies

  The credit card processing companies small businesses use, what each publishes about pricing, and where to find our fee guides, comparisons and scores.

• Credit Card Processing Fees Explained

  What credit card processing fees are made of, how Visa publishes interchange, why debit differs, with a worked example from Visa’s 2026 rate tables.

• Do You Need a Business Bank Account?

  What the SBA says about opening a business bank account, what documents banks ask for, the fees to compare, and how it connects to card processing.

• EMV Chip Cards and Liability

  How Visa’s EMV liability shift disputes (conditions 10.1 and 10.2) work, what a chip-compliant terminal means, and what the PCI Council advises.

• Google Merchant Center for Shopify Sellers

  How Google Merchant Center works with Shopify: account setup, website claim, store and product requirements, and common reasons products fail to sync.

• How to Accept Credit Card Payments

  How to accept credit card payments for a small business: choose in-person, online or invoice, pick a provider, set up, understand fees and disputes.

• How to Choose a POS System

  A checklist for choosing a POS system: contract and hardware terms, processor lock-in, offline mode and pricing, using Square, Clover and Toast pages.

• How to Prevent Chargebacks

  Chargeback prevention tips from Visa’s published merchant guidelines, split into card-present, online, subscription and customer-service practices.

• Online Invoices and Payment Links

  Invoices or payment links? How Stripe, Square and PayPal describe them, when each fits, and the fees they publish for invoice payments.

• Is Shopify Worth It?

  A fact-based look at whether Shopify is worth it for a small online seller: plan prices, card rates, add-ons and the questions that decide it.

• Mobile Card Readers for Small Business

  What Square and Stripe publish about mobile card readers: prices, phone-based options, offline mode limits and what to check before buying.

• Navy Federal Business Accounts

  Navy Federal business checking and savings: who can join, opening deposit, required documents, checking account fees and how the application works.

• Payment Gateway vs Merchant Account

  The difference between a payment gateway and a merchant account, how a card payment moves through them, and why providers’ definitions vary.

• Payment Processing for Small Business

  Payment processing for small business explained: ways to take payments, what it costs, how to choose a provider and where to compare.

• PayPal Business Account: How to Open One

  How to open a PayPal Business account: what you need, whether an LLC is required, how it differs from a personal account, and what PayPal says it costs.

• PCI Compliance for Small Business

  What PCI DSS means for a small merchant: the self-assessment questionnaire, the PCI Council’s twelve security basics, and questions to ask your vendors.

• QR Code Payments for Small Business

  How PayPal and Stripe QR code payments work, what PayPal’s QR rate costs compared with its checkout rate, and what to check before printing a code.

• Refunds, Voids and Chargebacks

  The difference between canceling a payment, refunding it and losing a chargeback, and what Stripe, Square and PayPal publish about fees on each.

• How to Respond to a Chargeback

  What evidence Visa’s merchant guidelines suggest for common disputes, how to submit it, when accepting makes sense, and what compelling evidence means.

• Routing Numbers Explained

  What a bank routing number is, where to find it on a check, why it is not on a statement, and why businesses need it for ACH and invoices.

• Shopify Payments vs Third-Party Gateways

  What Shopify charges for its own payments versus another gateway: third-party fees by plan, how the two combine, and a worked example.

• How to Take Card Payments by Phone

  How a virtual terminal works, what Clover, Square, Stripe and PayPal publish for keyed-in card rates, and the security advice the PCI Council gives.

• Contactless Payments and Tap to Pay

  How to accept contactless payments on a phone: what Apple says Tap to Pay on iPhone does, what Stripe and Square publish, and what it costs.

• Tip Reporting for Restaurants and Salons

  IRS rules on reporting tips: what employees and employers must record, service charges vs tips, and the 2025 to 2028 qualified tips deduction.

• Tools for New LLC Owners

  A checklist of the setup steps the SBA lists after you form an LLC (EIN, licenses, bank account, insurance) with free tools and guides for each step.