Helcim

Who Helcim is for

Helcim is the most accessible interchange-plus processor on the market. No monthly fee, no contracts, no cancellation fee, no setup fee. You sign up, connect your bank account, and start processing at interchange-plus rates. For businesses that want to move off flat-rate pricing (Square, Stripe) without committing to a monthly subscription or negotiating a contract, Helcim is the obvious starting point.

The platform covers retail, restaurants, services, and ecommerce through a single account. You get a POS app, virtual terminal, invoicing, online checkout pages, and ACH processing. The Helcim Smart Terminal (launched July 2025) is a capable all-in-one device with a 6.7-inch touchscreen, built-in receipt printer, and 12-hour battery. It is not the deepest feature set in the industry (Stripe wins for developers, Square wins for POS ecosystems), but it covers what most small businesses need without charging extra for any of it.

The zero-fee advantage (and its limits)

Helcim’s defining feature is that everything outside of transaction processing is free. No monthly fee. No PCI compliance fee. No gateway fee. No virtual terminal fee. No cancellation fee. In an industry where processors routinely stack $10-$50/month in account fees on top of transaction costs, Helcim’s $0 baseline is genuinely unusual.

This matters most for businesses processing under $10,000/month. At low volumes, monthly fees eat into margins fast. A $20/month processor fee on $5,000 in monthly volume is an effective 0.4% surcharge before you process a single transaction. Helcim eliminates that entirely.

The trade-off is that Helcim’s per-transaction markup is not the lowest available. At Tier 1 (up to $50,000/month), in-person transactions carry an interchange + 0.40% + $0.08 markup. Online transactions are interchange + 0.50% + $0.25. These are competitive against flat-rate processors but notably higher than Dharma Merchant Services, which charges interchange + 0.15% + $0.08 in-person with a $20/month fee.

The automatic volume discounts help close this gap as you grow:

Tier	Monthly volume	In-person markup	Online markup
1	$0 - $50K	IC + 0.40% + $0.08	IC + 0.50% + $0.25
2	$50K - $100K	IC + 0.35% + $0.07	IC + 0.45% + $0.20
3	$100K - $500K	IC + 0.25% + $0.07	IC + 0.35% + $0.20
4	$500K - $1M	IC + 0.20% + $0.06	IC + 0.25% + $0.15
5	$1M+	IC + 0.15% + $0.06	IC + 0.15% + $0.15

Tiers are calculated on a 3-month rolling average of your credit card volume. You do not need to call, negotiate, or ask. The discount applies automatically. This is a genuine differentiator that no other processor in our catalog offers.

The pricing math

Here is how Helcim compares to flat-rate processors and Dharma for in-person payments (assumes 1.8% average interchange, $40 average ticket):

Monthly volume	Square Free (2.6% + $0.15)	Stripe (2.7% + $0.05)	Helcim Tier 1 (IC + 0.40% + $0.08, $0/mo)	Dharma (IC + 0.15% + $0.08, $20/mo)
$5,000	~$149	~$141	~$120	~$128
$10,000	~$298	~$283	~$240	~$235
$25,000	~$744	~$706	~$600	~$558
$50,000	~$1,488	~$1,413	~$1,200	~$1,095

Helcim saves significant money compared to Square and Stripe at every volume level. At $25,000/month, you save roughly $144/month ($1,728/year) compared to Square and $106/month ($1,272/year) compared to Stripe.

Against Dharma, the picture is more nuanced. Below roughly $8,000-$9,000/month, Helcim is cheaper because you avoid the $20 monthly fee. Above that threshold, Dharma’s lower per-transaction markup (0.15% vs. 0.40%) pulls ahead. At $25,000/month, Dharma saves about $42/month ($504/year) compared to Helcim. At $50,000/month, the gap is $105/month ($1,260/year).

For online-only businesses, the gap is wider. Helcim’s Tier 1 online rate of IC + 0.50% + $0.25 is the main weak spot in its pricing. Dharma charges IC + 0.20% + $0.11 for online transactions, a meaningful difference on every sale.

Helcim also offers Fee Saver, which passes processing costs to customers where state law permits. If you enable this, your effective processing cost drops to near zero. Not every business can or should use surcharging, but for those that can, it eliminates the rate comparison entirely.

Bottom line

Helcim is the best interchange-plus processor for businesses that want to pay nothing except transaction fees. The $0 monthly fee, $0 cancellation fee, and automatic volume discounts make it the easiest IC+ processor to start with and the hardest to feel locked into. The full platform (POS, invoicing, online checkout, virtual terminal, ACH) means you are not sacrificing features for better pricing.

If you process under $8,000-$9,000/month, Helcim is almost certainly the best processor for you. No monthly fee, no contract, and significantly cheaper than Square or Stripe.

If you process above $10,000/month, compare Helcim against Dharma Merchant Services. Dharma’s lower per-transaction markup (0.15% vs. 0.40%) saves real money at volume, even after accounting for their $20/month fee. Both are excellent processors with transparent pricing and no contracts. The right choice depends on your volume and whether the monthly fee trade-off works for your business. A statement audit can show you exactly which option costs less at your specific volume and card mix.