Arizona Businesses Are Paying $217 Million in Fees on Money That Isn't Theirs

Read that number again.

$217 million per year. Not on products. Not on services. On sales tax — money Arizona businesses collect on behalf of the state and hand over to the government. Credit card companies are charging you a percentage of money that was never part of your revenue in the first place.

And that's just the tax portion. The total amount Arizona businesses lose to processing fees every year is exponentially higher.

The Fee Structure Nobody Explains to You

When you signed up with your processor, they probably told you something like: "Your rate will be around 2.5–3%."

That number was technically true. And functionally a lie.

Because that "rate" doesn't include the dozen other fees they quietly add to every statement:

• Interchange fees (paid to card-issuing bank)1.5–2.5%
• Processor markup0.2–0.5%
• Network/assessment fees (Visa, MC)0.13–0.15%
• PCI compliance fee$10–$30/mo
• Monthly service fee$10–$25/mo
• Batch fee (daily settlement)$0.10–$0.30/batch
• Statement fee$5–$15/mo
• "Regulatory" fee$5–$25/mo
• Fees on sales tax collectedFull rate applied

When you add it all up, most businesses discover their true effective rate — total fees divided by total card sales — is 3.4% to 4%+. Not the 2.5% they were promised.

What That Actually Costs You

Let's say your business processes $60,000 per month in card transactions. Here's what you think you're paying versus what you're probably actually paying:

Over five years, that's $39,600 gone from your business. Not because you did anything wrong. Because nobody told you the real number.

Arizona Lawmakers Are Finally Paying Attention

In February 2025, Arizona State Representative Jeff Weninger introduced House Bill 2629 — legislation that would prohibit credit card companies from charging interchange fees on the sales tax portion of transactions.

The bill was backed by the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), which called it a measure to "shield Arizona small businesses from costly swipe fees."

NFIB State Director Chad Heinrich put it bluntly:

The message is clear: Arizona businesses are getting charged for money that isn't theirs, by companies that aren't from here, to fund rewards programs they don't benefit from.

The frustration is shared by business owners across the state. Writing in the Arizona Republic, Arizona small business owner Bob Sommer laid it out plainly:

Sommer pointed out that HB 2629 would unlock extra capital to help Arizona entrepreneurs weather uncertain economic conditions — from tight labor markets to rising costs. Capital that's currently being siphoned away by out-of-state credit card companies on every single transaction.

Who's Taking Your Money?

Visa and Mastercard control 90% of payment processing transactions in the United States. In 2023, credit card interchange fees reached a record $172 billion nationally — more than the GDP of 130 countries.

These aren't small companies struggling to stay afloat. They're two of the most profitable corporations on Earth. And every time a customer taps their card at your counter, they take their cut — whether you realize it or not.

Meanwhile, the business owner down the street — the one working 60-hour weeks, managing employees, paying rent, covering insurance — is silently losing $500 to $2,000+ per month to a fee structure that was designed to be confusing.

That's the system. It's not broken. It's built this way.

But Here's What Most Business Owners Still Don't Know

While Arizona waits for HB 2629 to move through the legislature, there's already a legal way to eliminate most or all of your processing fees right now.

It's called dual pricing. And it's not new — gas stations have done it for decades. The concept is simple: customers who pay with cash see the standard price. Customers who pay with a card see a small service fee that covers the cost of processing.

It's fully legal in all 50 states. It's compliant with Visa and Mastercard rules when properly implemented. And thousands of Arizona businesses have already made the switch.

The result? Processing fees drop to zero or near-zero. The money you were giving away every month stays in your business.

Who's Helping Arizona Businesses Make the Switch?

Deposyt — a payment processing company headquartered in Tempe, Arizona — has been helping businesses navigate this exact transition for over 20 years. They're not a call center on the other side of the country. They're local. And their track record speaks for itself:

This isn't a faceless corporation. When you call, a real person picks up. When you text, someone who knows your account responds. That alone makes them different from 99% of processors.

The Question Every Arizona Business Owner Should Be Asking

You know your rent. You know your payroll. You know what you pay for insurance.

Do you know your true effective processing rate?

Not the rate you were quoted. Not the number on the front page of your contract. The actual total — every fee, every charge, every line item on your statement — divided by your total card sales.

If you don't know that number, you're almost certainly overpaying. And every month you don't check is another month of money walking out the door.

This article references Arizona HB 2629, statements from the National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB), Rep. Jeff Weninger, and reporting from the Arizona Republic. AZfeeAudit partners with Deposyt to help Arizona businesses reduce processing costs. This is not legal or financial advice.