Payments Leakage
How much is your payments program leaving on the table?
Select your program direction, segment, and model. The calculator estimates your interchange, float, processor spread, and fee revenue gap against benchmarks for your program type.
Step 1 — Payment Direction
Step 2 — Program Segment
Vertical SaaS collecting customer payments — SaaS subscriptions, invoices, service fees.
Step 3 — Program Model
PayFac: you aggregate sub-merchants. Interchange-plus pricing available but not always captured. Better economics than flat rate at scale.
Step 4 — Processing Volume
Monthly processing volume
$10M
$100K$500M
Card / electronic percentage
70%
0%100%
For inbound: % of payments via card (higher = more interchange opportunity). For outbound: % going to electronic rails.
Average daily customer balance
$1M
$0$100M
Customer / borrower balances in FBO or trust accounts. Float yield on these balances is often owned by the bank by default unless explicitly negotiated.
Step 5 — Current Economics
Current processing rate (%)
2.90%
0.5%4.0%
Stripe standard: 2.9% + $0.30. Interchange-plus programs typically land at 1.5–2.2% effective rate at scale. The gap is your processor spread.
Current interchange capture rate (bps)
40 bps
0 bps200 bps
BaaS default is often 0–25 bps after middleware share. Well-designed direct programs capture 80–150+ bps on card volume.
Float yield currently received (%)
0%
0%5%
Most BaaS and flat-rate programs receive 0% yield on customer balances. Negotiated direct programs can achieve 3–5% on Fed Funds equivalent.
Estimated Annual Leakage
$0
Revenue or savings your program is leaving uncaptured
Take rate benchmark (bps)
Your program
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Segment avg
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Top programs
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Diagnose your program's leakage.
These estimates are directional. Actual gaps depend on BIN structure, card type mix, bank relationship terms, and program model specifics.
Get the Leakage Recovery Checklist
The 12-point checklist for closing processor spread, BaaS middleware, float, and Level 2/3 gaps — with implementation sequencing.
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Inbound — Processor spread gap: (Current rate % − interchange-plus effective rate) × annual card volume. Interchange-plus effective rate estimated at 1.5–2.0% depending on segment and card mix. Represents the annual overpayment to a flat-rate processor vs. interchange-plus pricing at the same volume. Stripe / flat-rate processors earn the spread between their flat rate and the actual interchange cost — at scale this is often 0.7–1.4% of card volume annually.
Inbound — Level 2/3 optimization: Estimated at 0.3–0.5% of B2B card volume for programs not transmitting enhanced data. B2B cards qualify for significantly lower interchange rates when Level 2/3 data (invoice number, line items, tax amount) is transmitted with the authorization. Most programs don't transmit this data.
Outbound — Interchange capture gap: (Achievable bps − current bps) × annual card volume ÷ 10,000. Achievable bps estimated by segment and model — BaaS: 40–80 bps achievable, Direct: 80–160 bps achievable.
Float revenue gap: (Market rate 4.5% − current yield received) × average daily balance. Applies to all program directions. Float economics are typically a negotiable term in direct bank relationships — BaaS and flat-rate processors rarely surface this as available.
Fee structure gap: Estimated at 0.05–0.15% of total volume depending on segment. Represents speed fees, premium rail pricing, and transaction convenience fees not currently charged.
Lending / Servicer — disbursement optimization: Loan disbursements, servicer payments, and insurance claim payments have specific rail economics — ACH vs. RTP/FedNow vs. push-to-card each carry different cost and revenue profiles. Programs defaulting to ACH for all disbursements leave premium rail economics uncaptured.
Benchmark BPS ranges: Based on ExpandUp's operator experience across embedded finance programs. Inbound: avg 40–80 bps effective take, top 15–25 bps effective cost (interchange-plus). Outbound: avg 30–60 bps capture, top 80–160 bps. AP/B2B: avg 20–50 bps, top 100–200 bps including VCard economics. Lending/Servicer: avg 10–30 bps, top 40–80 bps.
Estimates for directional analysis only. Actual leakage depends on BIN structure, card type, Level 2/3 transmission, bank relationship terms, contract structure, and program model specifics. ExpandUp does not guarantee any specific outcome.
Inbound — Level 2/3 optimization: Estimated at 0.3–0.5% of B2B card volume for programs not transmitting enhanced data. B2B cards qualify for significantly lower interchange rates when Level 2/3 data (invoice number, line items, tax amount) is transmitted with the authorization. Most programs don't transmit this data.
Outbound — Interchange capture gap: (Achievable bps − current bps) × annual card volume ÷ 10,000. Achievable bps estimated by segment and model — BaaS: 40–80 bps achievable, Direct: 80–160 bps achievable.
Float revenue gap: (Market rate 4.5% − current yield received) × average daily balance. Applies to all program directions. Float economics are typically a negotiable term in direct bank relationships — BaaS and flat-rate processors rarely surface this as available.
Fee structure gap: Estimated at 0.05–0.15% of total volume depending on segment. Represents speed fees, premium rail pricing, and transaction convenience fees not currently charged.
Lending / Servicer — disbursement optimization: Loan disbursements, servicer payments, and insurance claim payments have specific rail economics — ACH vs. RTP/FedNow vs. push-to-card each carry different cost and revenue profiles. Programs defaulting to ACH for all disbursements leave premium rail economics uncaptured.
Benchmark BPS ranges: Based on ExpandUp's operator experience across embedded finance programs. Inbound: avg 40–80 bps effective take, top 15–25 bps effective cost (interchange-plus). Outbound: avg 30–60 bps capture, top 80–160 bps. AP/B2B: avg 20–50 bps, top 100–200 bps including VCard economics. Lending/Servicer: avg 10–30 bps, top 40–80 bps.
Estimates for directional analysis only. Actual leakage depends on BIN structure, card type, Level 2/3 transmission, bank relationship terms, contract structure, and program model specifics. ExpandUp does not guarantee any specific outcome.