Aisha runs an online business doing about £20,000 in monthly sales — a mix of one-off purchases and a small recurring product line. Her card processor's published rate is 2.9% plus 30p per transaction. She sees the line item on every payout statement, recognises it as the cost of taking card payments, and does not think about it beyond that.
If she did the math, the annual figure would surprise her. The percentage and the per-transaction fee combine in ways that are not obvious until they are written out — and the total, on a business her size, is large enough that any other cost line would have triggered a procurement review years ago.
The math on a £20,000-a-month online business
The published rate for online card processing from major providers — Stripe, Square, and the larger gateway players — is 2.9% plus 30p (or roughly 30¢) per transaction. This is the industry-standard rate published openly by major card processors. It is not a hidden number; it is just one most merchants do not multiply out.
Take Aisha's business. £20,000 in monthly sales, spread across roughly 800 transactions in a month with an average ticket of £25.
- The percentage component: 2.9% of £20,000 = £580 per month
- The per-transaction component: 800 × 30p = £240 per month
- Combined: £820 per month in card processing fees
- Annualised: £9,840 per year
That is for a business with £240,000 in annual revenue. The card processing line, at roughly 4.1% of total revenue once the per-transaction fee is averaged in, is one of her largest controllable costs. It is larger than her annual marketing budget, in many cases. It is certainly larger than the fees she pays for any of her other software tools combined.
And these are illustrative figures on the assumptions above — a different volume, ticket size, or transaction count will give a different total. The point is the shape of the math, not the specific number. For most online businesses, the headline percentage hides the practical annual cost.
What the percentage is actually paying for
It is worth understanding what the 2.9% covers, because it explains why the rate is structured the way it is. Card networks operate a layered system — issuing bank, acquiring bank, network (Visa, Mastercard, Amex), and processor — and each layer takes a share. The interchange fee, paid to the customer's issuing bank, is the largest single component. Network fees go to Visa or Mastercard. Acquirer and processor markups make up the rest. The merchant's processor wraps all of this into a single advertised rate.
The percentage also funds the chargeback system. Card networks guarantee buyer protection, which means processors absorb the risk of disputes — and price that risk into the rate. A merchant who never has a chargeback still pays for the chargeback infrastructure, because the rate is calibrated across all merchants in the network's risk pool.
For a £20,000-a-month online business, card processing fees at the industry-standard 2.9% + 30p rate work out to roughly £820 a month — close to £10,000 a year in transaction costs alone.
— Illustrative example using industry-standard rates published by major card processors
How Spondula's gateway is priced differently
Spondula's payment gateway does not charge a percentage-based card-style processing fee. The reason is structural: payments on the Spondula network settle peer-to-peer, not through the four-layer card-network chain. There is no interchange to pass through, no network fee, no acquirer-processor markup stack to fund. The economics of the network are different from the economics of the card-processing world.
This also means the merchant is not paying a percentage to fund chargeback infrastructure that they may never need. Spondula payments do not carry the involuntary-reversal mechanism that card chargebacks do — disputes are handled through the network's resolution process, not by clawing money back from the merchant's settled balance. The risk pool the rate would otherwise fund does not apply on this rail.
The specific fee schedule for Spondula's gateway is confirmed during launch-partner onboarding and varies by territory. The headline is that it is not 2.9% + 30p, and it is not designed to be.
What a merchant can do with what they save
Take Aisha's £9,840 a year. If processing fees fell to a fraction of that on a different rail, the saved amount sits in the same place every other reduction in operating cost would: as gross-margin uplift. For a business with a 30% net margin, eliminating that line is equivalent to growing top-line revenue by roughly £33,000 — same bottom line, no growth pressure required.
Multiply across years and the figure becomes structural. A small online business that processes for ten years pays close to £100,000 in card fees on Aisha's volume. A medium business processing £100,000 a month pays close to £50,000 a year — and the math just grows from there.
The 2.9% line on a processor's dashboard is not a small number once it is multiplied out. For most online retailers, it is one of the largest controllable costs in the business.
Spondula's gateway is open for launch partners — online retailers, subscription businesses, marketplaces, and any business that has not previously stopped to multiply out what their processing fees actually cost over a year. The waitlist is the starting point.
Frequently asked questions
What does Spondula charge instead of percentage card fees?
Spondula's payment gateway does not use the percentage-based card-processing fee model. Specific fee details are confirmed during launch-partner onboarding and vary by territory and use case. The headline is that the network's economics do not require the percentage-and-per-transaction structure that card processors use.
What about chargebacks — am I covered if a customer disputes?
Spondula payments do not carry the card-network chargeback mechanism, because they do not settle through card-network rails. Disputes between buyer and seller are handled through the network's dispute-resolution process, which does not result in involuntary fund clawback the way card chargebacks do. Merchants are not exposed to the same kind of unilateral reversal risk.
Can I still take card payments alongside Spondula?
Yes. Most launch partners run Spondula alongside their existing card processor for a transition period, then shift volume as their customer base adopts the new payment option. The two are complementary — card processing for customers who want to pay by card, Spondula for customers who already have a wallet on the network.
How do I move my Spondula balance to my business bank account?
Two routes are available. The first is a direct bank transfer from the merchant's Spondula balance to their business bank account — the standard off-ramp where Spondula's bank-rail integration is live. The second is through a Local Operator, useful for merchants who prefer cash, operate in markets with thinner banking infrastructure, or want to settle through a trusted local partner. Most merchants use the bank-transfer route as the default and reserve Local Operators for specific situations. Onboarding covers what is available in the merchant's territory.
How does the math change for higher-volume merchants?
The percentage-based card fee scales linearly with revenue — a business doing £100,000 a month at 2.9% + 30p pays roughly £4,100 a month, or close to £50,000 a year. The savings on a percentage-free rail scale with the same shape, which is why higher-volume merchants tend to feel the cost difference most clearly.
Spondula is a global payments network. It is not a bank, exchange, investment platform, or broker. Availability, pricing, and Operator coverage vary by country. Bitcoin rewards depend on real network activity and are not guaranteed. See our terms and conditions for full details.
