Your Payments Costs
Should Reflect Your Company.
Your payment costs should reflect how your company actually operates — from transaction volume and card mix to locations, technology, and provider agreements. Clearline Payments Group reviews processing, equipment, and SaaS costs as one operating model, then works with your providers to align terms. You pay only after savings appear on your statement.
Verified savings are savings we have identified, renegotiated, and that our clients have already realized. They are not estimates or projections. Figures are cumulative across all client engagements to date.
Independent Expertise.
Aligned With Your Interests.
Matthew Richardson brings over 25 years of experience in commercial banking and private equity to every engagement. Clearline Payments Group was built on a straightforward principle: the complexity of merchant processing fee structures is a feature, not a flaw — designed to obscure costs that are, in most cases, negotiable.
We work directly with your existing payments provider to ensure the rates, fees, and contract terms you are paying reflect your company's actual volume, card mix, and risk profile. We do not have preferred processor relationships. We do not earn referral fees. Our only interest is an accurate outcome for your organization.
Our client base spans national restaurant chains, large franchise groups, industrial manufacturers, health systems, and hospitality companies — with over $20 million in verified savings delivered across all three pillars.
If you are in a good deal, we will tell you. If you are not, we will prove it — and fix it before you pay us a cent.
A Structured Review Across
All Three Cost Centers.
Merchant processing costs are distributed across three separate budget lines, managed by three separate vendors, and governed by three separate contracts. We review all three simultaneously — because a partial audit produces a partial result.
Processing Rates
Your effective rate, interchange fees, assessment charges, and processor markup — benchmarked against current market data for your exact volume tier, card mix, and industry. We identify every basis point of overcharge and negotiate it back.
- Effective rate analysis
- Interchange optimization
- Processor markup benchmarking
- Pricing model review (flat-rate, tiered, interchange-plus)
Equipment & Leases
Terminal leases are among the most abusive contracts in the payments industry — four-year, non-cancellable agreements on hardware worth a fraction of the total cost. We audit every device, every lease, and every maintenance contract.
- Terminal lease review
- POS hardware cost analysis
- Lease buyout vs. replacement analysis
- Multi-location equipment audits
SaaS & Platform Fees
Payment gateways, POS software, reporting platforms, loyalty integrations — each carries its own fee structure, and most are negotiable. We review every SaaS contract in your payments stack and identify redundancies and overcharges.
- Payment gateway fees
- POS software licensing
- Reporting and analytics platforms
- Loyalty and gift card integrations
You Pay Nothing Until
The Savings Are on Your Statement.
Our fee averages 40% of the savings realized in the first 12 months, calculated only after the new rates appear on your first revised statement. After that first year, 100% of the savings are yours. No upfront cost. No risk.
Free Consultation
We review your volume, contract structure, and current fees. If we do not see meaningful savings potential, we tell you — and the engagement ends there.
Document Review
You provide three months of processing statements, equipment leases, and SaaS contracts. We analyze all three pillars against current market benchmarks.
Findings Report
We deliver a written report quantifying overcharges by pillar, with specific negotiation language your team can use directly with your provider.
Negotiation & Verification
We negotiate on your behalf, attend vendor calls, and verify that the new rates appear correctly on your first revised statement before calculating our fee.
Verified Results Across
Complex Operating Environments
Our client base includes multi-unit restaurant operators, large franchise systems, industrial companies, health systems, and hospitality groups. In each case, the methodology is the same: a structured, three-pillar review that produces a documented, negotiated outcome.
Multi-Unit Restaurant Operators
Processing rate reductions across high-volume, card-present environments. Effective rate corrections averaging 18–22 basis points at scale.
Range reflects the average across all client engagements to date, spanning a range of processing volumes and every processor we have negotiated with.
National Franchise Systems
Equipment lease renegotiations and buyouts across hundreds of locations, eliminating above-market monthly obligations.
Industrial & Chemical Companies
SaaS contract consolidation and gateway fee reductions across complex B2B payment environments with Level 2/3 data requirements.
Health Systems & Medical Groups
Three-pillar audits across processing, POS software, and patient-facing payment platforms in regulated billing environments.
Hospitality Groups
Multi-property processing reviews covering PMS-integrated payment systems, equipment leases, and gateway contracts.
Large Retail & Distribution
Interchange optimization and card-not-present rate corrections for high-volume mixed-channel operators.
See Where You Stand Before You Call
Two free tools. No email required. No sales follow-up unless you ask for it.
Answer four questions about your current agreement and get an instant assessment of whether your rates, equipment costs, and SaaS fees are above, within, or below market benchmarks.
Run the AnalyzerEnter your monthly volume, fees, and contract details to get a full three-pillar benchmark analysis with estimated annual savings and negotiation talking points.
Open the CalculatorStart With a
Confidential Review.
We begin every engagement with a confidential review of your current fee structure. If your contracts are at market rate, we will tell you — and the engagement ends there. If they are not, we will document the overcharge and present a clear path to recovery before any fee is discussed.
We do not charge a fee until you have seen the savings on your statement. If your current contracts are fair, we will tell you — and the engagement ends there at no cost to you.