Payment Gateway With No Per-Transaction Gateway Fees | Coastal Pay

What Is a Payment Gateway Fee and Why Does It Matter?

Many merchants sign up for payment processing focused on the headline percentage rate and miss the gateway fees that add materially to their total monthly cost. Understanding what gateway fees are – and how they compound at volume – is the starting point for an accurate cost comparison.

Types of Gateway Fees You Might Be Paying Without Realizing

• Monthly gateway subscription fee: A fixed monthly charge for access to the payment gateway software, typically ranging from $10 to $30/month from standalone gateway providers. This fee applies whether you process 10 transactions or 10,000 that month.
• Per-transaction gateway fee: An additional per-transaction charge on top of the processing rate. Appears on your statement as a separate line item from the interchange and processing markup. Common range: $0.05 to $0.15 per transaction. At 2,000 transactions/month, a $0.10 per-transaction gateway fee adds $200/month – $2,400/year.
• Batch fee: A daily fee charged each time the merchant closes their daily transaction batch. Typically $0.10 to $0.25 per batch. For a business open 6 days per week: 24 to 26 batches per month = $2.60 to $6.50/month. Small but cumulative over years.
• Statement fee: A monthly fee for generating and sending a paper or digital statement. Typically $5 to $10/month. Often added without the merchant’s explicit awareness.
• Monthly minimum fee: If monthly processing fees fall below a set minimum, the difference is charged as a monthly minimum. A $25/month minimum at a business that processes only $500 one slow month (generating $12.50 in fees at 2.5%) triggers a $12.50 minimum fee.
• Annual fee: Some processors charge an annual account fee of $95 to $150 that resets each year.

The Cumulative Impact of Gateway Fees at Volume

These fees individually appear small. Together, they represent a significant percentage of your true processing cost. Consider a merchant processing $50,000/month with 1,000 transactions at a processor with a 2.7% + $0.10 advertised rate plus common add-on fees:

• Processing: 2.7% x $50,000 = $1,350
• Per-transaction rate fee: $0.10 x 1,000 = $100
• Monthly gateway fee: $25
• Per-transaction gateway fee: $0.08 x 1,000 = $80
• Batch fee: $0.15 x 26 batches = $3.90
• Statement fee: $7.50
• Total: $1,566.40/month – $18,796.80/year

Coastal Pay on the same volume: 2.5% x $50,000 + $0.15 x 1,000 = $1,250 + $150 = $1,400/month – $16,800/year. Savings: $1,996.80/year – just from eliminating gateway fees and using a lower all-in rate.

Here’s What “No Gateway Fee” Includes With Coastal Pay

When Coastal Pay says $0 monthly gateway fee and no per-transaction gateway surcharge, that means the following are all included in the flat 2.5% + $0.15 per transaction rate – with no additional monthly charge for any of them.

Payment Tools Included at $0 Extra Per Month

• Virtual terminal: Browser-based manual card entry for phone orders, mail orders, and staff-entered transactions. No separate virtual terminal subscription.
• Payment links: Generate shareable payment URLs in under 60 seconds. Share via text, email, or social media. Customer pays on Coastal Pay-hosted checkout page. No payment link platform fee.
• Email invoicing: Send branded invoices with Pay Now buttons directly to customer emails. Automated receipt delivery. No separate invoicing software subscription required.
• Recurring billing: Card-on-file and ACH recurring billing with configurable cycles, automatic retry, card updater, and dunning notifications. No separate recurring billing platform fee.
• Customer vault (tokenization): Secure card token storage for repeat customers and card-on-file recurring billing. No per-token storage fee.
• Hosted payment pages: Coastal Pay-hosted checkout pages for e-commerce stores without full API integration. No page hosting fee.
• Reporting dashboard: Transaction history, batch reports, settlement reports, payment method mix reports, and export to CSV. No reporting add-on fee.
• Dispute management: Chargeback notification, dispute response tools, and documentation upload. No dispute management add-on fee.
• 2,000+ software integrations: Connections to POS platforms, e-commerce platforms, accounting software, and CRM systems. No per-integration activation fee for most integrations.
• API access: REST API for custom integrations with full developer documentation at coastalpay.com/api-links. No API access fee or per-call API pricing.

Alternative Payment Methods at No Extra Monthly Fee

Each of the following alternative payment methods is available in your Coastal Pay merchant account at no extra monthly activation fee or separate method-specific monthly subscription:

• Apple Pay and Google Pay
• Venmo and PayPal
• Klarna (buy now pay later)
• Afterpay (buy now pay later)
• ACH bank debit (flat per-item rate – contact for current ACH pricing)
• Coinbase Commerce (cryptocurrency)

Coastal Pay’s $0 gateway fee means every feature listed above is operational from the moment your account is approved – no activation steps, no add-on subscriptions, no waiting for feature unlocks based on plan tier.

Get Full Gateway Access at $0/Month – Apply in 2 Minutes

How Coastal Pay Compares to Processors and Gateways With Additional Fees

Annual Cost Comparison at $50,000/Month, 1,000 Transactions

• Coastal Pay all-in: (2.5% x $50,000) + ($0.15 x 1,000) = $1,400/month = $16,800/year
• Authorize.net + separate processor at 2.7%: ($25 gateway) + ($0.10 x 1,000 gateway per-tx) + (2.7% x $50,000) + ($0.10 x 1,000 processing per-tx) = $25 + $100 + $1,350 + $100 = $1,575/month = $18,900/year
• Traditional processor at 2.7% + $0.20 + $25 gateway + $0.08 gateway per-tx: $1,350 + $200 + $25 + $80 = $1,655/month = $19,860/year
• Stripe at 2.9% + $0.30: $1,450 + $300 = $1,750/month = $21,000/year
• Annual savings vs Authorize.net + processor: $2,100
• Annual savings vs traditional processor: $3,060
• Annual savings vs Stripe: $4,200

Here’s How to Find Hidden Gateway Fees on Your Current Statement

Before you can make an accurate comparison, you need to know your true current processing cost – not just the headline rate you were quoted at signup.

How to Read Your Processing Statement for Hidden Fees

1. Find the “Fees” or “Other Charges” section of your monthly statement. This is typically separate from the interchange and processing markup section.
2. Look for line items labeled: “Gateway Fee,” “Transaction Fee” (separate from the per-transaction rate), “Batch Fee” or “Settlement Fee,” “Statement Fee” or “Paper Statement Fee,” “Monthly Minimum,” “Annual Fee,” “PCI Non-Compliance Fee,” or “Token Storage Fee.”
3. Add these fees to your processing fees to get your true monthly cost.
4. Divide total monthly fees by total monthly volume to get your true effective rate: total fees / total volume = effective rate.
5. Compare your effective rate to Coastal Pay’s all-in flat rate at your volume: (2.5% x volume) + ($0.15 x transaction count) / volume = Coastal Pay effective rate.

The Effective Rate Calculation

A merchant processing $75,000/month at a stated 2.4% + $0.10 rate with a $25 gateway, $0.08 per-transaction gateway fee, $7 statement fee, and $0.15 batch fee (26 batches/month):

• Processing rate: 2.4% x $75,000 = $1,800
• Per-transaction rate fee: $0.10 x 1,500 = $150
• Gateway fee: $25
• Gateway per-transaction: $0.08 x 1,500 = $120
• Statement fee: $7
• Batch fee: $0.15 x 26 = $3.90
• Total: $2,105.90
• Effective rate: $2,105.90 / $75,000 = 2.81% effective on a “2.4%” stated rate

Coastal Pay on the same $75,000 volume and 1,500 transactions: $1,875 + $225 = $2,100/month = 2.8% effective. Nearly identical effective rate with a far simpler fee structure – and Coastal Pay’s effective rate does not drift upward from hidden fees that accumulate over time.

A “2.4% rate” processor with gateway fees can produce a 2.81% effective rate. A “2.5% rate” gateway with no hidden fees produces a 2.5% effective rate. The stated rate and the effective rate are not the same thing – know your effective rate before comparing processors.

What Businesses Benefit Most From a No-Fee Gateway?

High Transaction Count Businesses

Businesses with high transaction counts and lower average tickets (coffee shops, convenience stores, quick-service food, subscription boxes with monthly recurring) feel per-transaction gateway fees most acutely because the fee applies to every transaction regardless of amount. At 3,000 transactions/month, a $0.10 per-transaction gateway fee adds $300/month – $3,600/year – before a cent of percentage-based processing.

Multi-Location Operations

A retail chain paying a $25/month gateway fee per location pays $250/month at 10 locations, $1,250/month at 50 locations, $3,000/month at 120 locations – $36,000/year in gateway subscription overhead alone before any transaction is processed. Coastal Pay’s $0 gateway fee across all locations eliminates this fixed cost multiplication entirely.

Seasonal Businesses

Businesses with seasonal revenue swings (holiday retailers, summer tourism, tax season services) pay gateway subscription fees even in low or no-volume months. A $25/month gateway fee in a zero-volume off-season month is pure overhead. Coastal Pay’s $0 monthly fee means no processing cost in zero-volume months.

Businesses Needing Multiple Gateway Features

A business that needs virtual terminal, payment links, email invoicing, recurring billing, and ACH from a traditional processor might pay $10 to $30/month each for these add-ons. Coastal Pay includes all of these at $0 extra. The savings from not purchasing these individually can exceed $50 to $100/month in feature subscription costs.

Developers Building Payment-Enabled Products

For development teams building applications with payment integration, a no-monthly-fee gateway means no cost during development and testing when transaction volume is zero. No gateway subscription fee while building, no per-call API pricing, and the same flat transaction rate applies when the application goes to production.

Getting a No-Fee Gateway With Coastal Pay

What to Confirm Before Applying

• Your legal business name and EIN (or SSN for sole proprietors)
• Business bank account routing and account number for settlement
• Estimated monthly card volume and transaction count
• Your current processor (if applicable) and any current gateway you use or pay for
• The payment features you need: virtual terminal, payment links, recurring billing, ACH, specific e-commerce platform integration

What Happens After You Apply

1. Submit the instant boarding form at coastalpay.com – approximately 2 minutes
2. Receive approval decision immediately for most standard-risk U.S. businesses
3. Log into Coastal Pay Gateway dashboard – all features active with $0 monthly fee from day one
4. Connect to your POS, e-commerce platform, or CRM via the integration directory or API
5. Process your first transaction – the 2.5% + $0.15 per transaction is the complete charge, no additional fees

Explore Coastal Pay’s full gateway features, transparent pricing, alternative payment methods, and 2,000+ integrations.

Get Approved in 2 Minutes – $0 Gateway Fee From Day One

Call to review your current fees first: 888-266-1715

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a per-transaction gateway fee and how does it affect my processing cost?

A per-transaction gateway fee is an additional charge on top of the processing rate for each transaction – appearing as a separate line item on your statement from the interchange and processing markup. At 1,000 transactions/month, a $0.10 per-transaction gateway fee adds $100/month – $1,200/year. Coastal Pay charges no separate per-transaction gateway fee. The flat 2.5% + $0.15 is the complete all-in cost per transaction.

Does Coastal Pay charge a monthly gateway fee?

No. Coastal Pay charges $0/month for gateway access. There is no monthly gateway subscription, no monthly platform fee, and no monthly minimum. Features included at $0 extra: virtual terminal, payment links, email invoicing, recurring billing, ACH, Apple Pay, Google Pay, Venmo, PayPal, Klarna, Afterpay, Coinbase, 2,000+ software integrations, and REST API access.

What is a payment gateway and do I need one for my business?

A payment gateway routes card payment data securely between your business, the acquiring bank, the card networks (Visa, Mastercard), and the customer’s bank. Every business accepting card payments needs a gateway. With Coastal Pay, the gateway is included in your merchant account at $0 monthly fee – not a separate product purchased separately from processing.

How does Coastal Pay compare to Authorize.net and other standalone gateways?

Authorize.net charges $25/month gateway + $0.10 per-transaction gateway fee in addition to a separate processor’s rate. At $50,000/month and 1,000 transactions, this adds $1,575/month versus Coastal Pay’s $1,400/month all-in. Annual difference: $2,100. Coastal Pay also includes virtual terminal, payment links, Apple Pay, Klarna, Afterpay, and ACH at no extra monthly fee, while Authorize.net either does not offer these or requires additional services for each.