National Processing

Who National Processing is for

National Processing targets small to mid-sized businesses that want interchange-plus pricing without negotiating a custom deal. If you process $10,000 or more per month and want to move off flat-rate pricing (Square, Stripe), National Processing is one of the options you will find in every “best processors” listicle.

The company offers the standard toolkit: in-person terminals (Clover and Pax devices), a free SwipeSimple mobile reader, virtual terminal, ACH payments, invoicing, and even cryptocurrency acceptance. It checks the boxes. The rate-lock guarantee, which promises your markup will not increase, is the headline feature.

The question is whether the total cost of doing business with National Processing actually saves you money compared to the alternatives.

The rate-lock promise and the fine print

National Processing’s rate-lock guarantee is genuinely useful in an industry where processors routinely creep rates up by 0.1% to 0.3% every year or two. If you sign up at interchange + 0.3% + $0.10, that markup stays fixed. In theory, this protects you from the slow bleed that catches most business owners off guard.

But the fine print matters. National Processing charges a monthly fee of $9.95 to $14.95 on top of your transaction costs. That is $120 to $180 per year before you process a single transaction. They also charge a $99/month PCI non-compliance fee if you do not complete their certification process. Miss a PCI deadline and you are paying an extra $1,188 per year for nothing.

Then there is the contract situation. Some businesses report signing month-to-month agreements. Others report multi-year contracts with early termination fees of $495 to $595. Whether the ETF is waived appears to depend on the sales representative, not a company-wide policy. If your agreement includes an ETF, you are locked in regardless of whether you are happy with the service.

National Processing also has 400+ complaints on the BBB and a 3.1 out of 5 on Trustpilot. Common themes include unexpected fees, difficulty canceling, and fund holds. These are not unique problems in payment processing, but the volume of complaints is higher than you would want to see.

The pricing math

National Processing’s interchange-plus markup is competitive on paper. Here is how it compares to Helcim for in-person payments (assumes 1.8% average interchange, $40 average ticket):

The gap comes from two places: National Processing’s lower percentage markup but higher per-transaction fee and the $9.95 monthly fee. At $5,000/month, you are overpaying about $23/month compared to Helcim. At $50,000/month, the gap is $125/month ($1,500/year).

These numbers assume you avoid the PCI non-compliance fee and negotiate out of an ETF. If you miss PCI certification for even one month, that is another $99 added to your costs.

Bottom line

National Processing is not a bad processor. Interchange-plus pricing with a rate-lock guarantee is the right model, and the feature set covers what most small businesses need. If you are coming from Square or Stripe and processing $10,000+ per month, National Processing will almost certainly save you money on transaction fees.

The problem is that Helcim does everything National Processing does, but without the monthly fee, without the contract, without the ETF risk, and with a lower per-transaction markup. Helcim also includes PCI compliance at no charge and has significantly fewer complaints.

If you are comparing interchange-plus processors, run the numbers side by side. A statement audit will show you exactly what each processor costs at your specific volume and ticket size. In most cases, the math favors Helcim. National Processing’s rate-lock guarantee is a nice feature, but it is locking in a rate that is already higher than what you could get elsewhere.