For suppliers — CFO & Owners
The net cost is 12–82 bps — not the 3% you're picturing — and you stop financing your buyer's receivable for 45 days. Card is a collection tool. It gets you paid faster.
The fee is real — and smaller than the wait. Net of tax, operational savings, and your cost of capital, the sticker MDR isn't the number that matters.
For the supplier decision-maker — net cost of acceptance, DSO, cost of capital, working capital.
The reframe
The card fee is the number everyone reacts to. The carrying cost is the number nobody puts on the page. When you do — net of tax, the collection time you get back, and your cost of capital — the sticker MDR stops being the decision. Net terms are a 0% loan you're extending to a buyer who can afford to pay you today.
A processing fee you assume is 3% or 4%, viewed in isolation, that "eats into thin margins." It's the only number on the page — so it wins the argument by default.
MDR minus the carrying cost you eliminate, the collection time you stop spending, the bad debt that goes to zero, and the credit line you stop drawing. On commercial card terms, that net can land in the low double-digit basis points.
Net cost vs. cost of waiting
Here's the comparison the card fee never gets shown against — the cost of capital tied up in an unpaid invoice. The figures below are example math to show the shape of the trade, not a guarantee; your real numbers depend on your terms, tax rate, and cost of capital.
Stop playing bank
When you ship on net terms, you pay your own suppliers in 30 days and wait 45, 60, even 90 to get paid. That gap is a loan — and you're the bank, lending at 0% to a buyer who could put it on a card today. Card isn't a fee to avoid; it's how you stop carrying your buyer's receivable and stop making the awkward collection call. You get paid in days, not months.
A 0% loan to your buyer, funded by your credit line at 8–12%.
Collection time, bad-debt exposure, and cash you can't forecast.
Guaranteed funds in 1–2 days, zero bad debt, no collection call.
The economics already favor the card
This isn't our claim — it's the published economics of commercial card acceptance once you account for acceleration. The price case for card is settled; what's left is setting the program up correctly so it actually gets you paid faster.
Net card cost when you accelerate cash 15 days at net-30 terms — versus 192–316 bps for check and ACH.
Net card cost on longer terms, where the acceleration is worth more — still a fraction of the 192–316 bps cost of check and ACH.
Net cost of card vs. check and ACH — on cost alone, card wins. The gap is the carrying cost you stop paying.
The objections, answered straight
"The fee is too high."
It's the sticker MDR you're reacting to, not the net cost. Subtract the carrying cost you eliminate, the collection time you get back, the bad debt that goes to zero, and the tax deduction — and the net lands in basis points, not percent. The fee is real; it's just smaller than the wait it replaces.
"We prefer ACH or wire."
ACH can be reversed and the timing still drifts. Card pays you in 1–2 days, the funds are guaranteed, and the remittance data reconciles cleanly against the invoice. You're trading a slow, uncertain "free" for fast, certain, and self-reconciling.
"Our margins are too thin."
That's the reason to do it, not avoid it. Card is a collection tool — it gets you paid faster, kills bad debt, and frees the cash you're borrowing against. On a thin margin, eliminating a single write-off and the carrying cost matters more, not less.
Built for the decision-maker
You don't want another system to learn or a long integration to manage. The case for card is a single sheet of net-cost math on your terms — here's what you'll pay, here's what you'll save, here's how fast you get paid. We handle the setup; you decide. See the full method on the case for card.
Card as a collection tool
Paid in days. Net cost in basis points.
Go deeper
For the AR & collections lead
The AR track: card turns the awkward collection call into a guaranteed deposit, and the receivable settles in days instead of aging past 60.
View the AR trackFor IT & integration
The IT track: card payments arrive with structured remittance that reconciles straight through to NetSuite, SAP, or QuickBooks — no new system to own.
View the IT trackRun the numbers
The full net-cost framework: MDR against carrying cost, tax, and your cost of capital — so you see the real number instead of the sticker.
See the case for cardWe'll size the net cost of acceptance on your terms, tax rate, and cost of capital — and show you how much sooner you get paid. One page, plain English, no payments project. Then you decide.
Other supplier roles