Products
The rate decides what you keep. Settlement decides when you get it. For a business paying suppliers weekly, the second one occasionally matters more than the first.
Most merchants are on next business day settlement, which quietly means Friday and weekend trade can land on Tuesday. Over a long weekend it is longer again.
That gap is invisible while cash flow is comfortable and extremely visible when it is not.
Same-day settlement exists with some providers, sometimes for a fee and usually with a cut-off time. Whether it is worth paying for is a straight comparison: the cost of the feature against what the delay actually costs you.
For a lot of businesses the honest answer is that it is not worth it. For one paying suppliers on delivery, it can be worth more than a rate reduction.
Sometimes a merchant asking us to cut their rate is describing a cash-flow problem rather than a pricing one. Funding against card turnover — repaid as a share of takings — exists for exactly that, and it is a different conversation from a rate review.
We will say which one we think you are having. Moving you to a slightly better rate when the actual problem is timing would not have fixed anything.
Tell us what you trade as and roughly what you turn over on cards. We quote it across the panel and are straight with you about whether it is worth moving.