A published line for what a fair fee looks like.
Every merchant knows the feeling of reading a statement and not understanding a line on it. There is no shortage of complaint about that. What is missing is a published, specific test that says what fair actually looks like, so a fee can be measured against something other than how it feels.
FPA does not sell merchant services and does not recommend payment providers. It publishes a standard and grades fees against it. If you are looking for someone to sell you processing, this is the wrong organisation.
§ 1 Who this is for
Merchants
A test you can apply to your own statement without hiring anyone, and a vocabulary for the conversation with your processor.
Journalists and researchers
A rubric with its evidence order published, so a finding can be checked rather than taken on trust.
Processors
A stated definition of fair that a company can price aggressively against and still meet. Every grade carries a right of reply on the page itself.
Advisors
A set of binding, checkable obligations to sign up to — disclosure of compensation, no early-termination fees, published pricing.
§ 2 The six tests
Each fee is put to six questions, all answerable from documents a merchant already has: the merchant agreement, the statement, and whatever the processor has published itself.
- 01 Was it disclosed at signing?
- 02 Was proper notice given?
- 03 Is it cost-justified?
- 04 Is it honestly named?
- 05 Can the merchant escape it?
- 06 Has it stayed stable?
The Standard does not grade whether a price is high. Expensive is a business decision; deceptive is a different thing entirely, and only the second is graded.
§ 3 The four grades
Pass-Through
A real external cost, passed on at or near what it costs. Nothing to answer for.
Fair
Processor revenue, openly so. Real service, honest name, disclosed, has not crept.
Padded
A genuine service underneath, but the price, disclosure or structure does not hold up.
Junk
No identifiable cost, or a name that asserts something untrue. Reserved for failures of Test 4.
A failure on honest naming is disqualifying on its own, because a merchant who has been told the wrong thing cannot evaluate any of the rest. Full method →
§ 4 What FPA is not, yet
A standards body that overstates its own authority has already failed its own test. So here is exactly what this is at v0.
- Not incorporated. FPA is an independent project. It is not a nonprofit and claims no tax status. It will say so on the day that changes.
- No independent board. Governance today is one founder. Until there are people who can overrule the founder, treat the grades as one party's published, checkable reasoning rather than an institution's verdict.
- No registry published yet. The Standard exists; the graded fee registry does not. Nothing has been graded in public.
- Version 0.1, draft for comment. The rubric is expected to change in response to argument. That is what the comment period is for.
- No certification. FPA does not certify, accredit, audit or approve anyone, and no one may describe themselves as FPA-certified.
§ 5 Where it goes next
- Comment period on v0.1. Argue with the rubric before it grades anybody.
- First graded fees coming — published with the processor's own words as the primary evidence, and a right of reply on the page.
- Merchant signatory count coming — free, no obligation to change providers or speak to anyone.
- Independent governance. A board with the power to overrule the founder, and the power to remove any advisor signatory, including the founder's own firm.
§ 6 Disclosure
FPA's founder also owns a for-profit payments advisory. That's a real conflict. It's disclosed here, in the Standard, and on every graded page, not in a footnote.
The founder isn't named on this site. You shouldn't need to trust a person to trust a grade: every grade shows its sources, so you can check the work yourself. The name is off the page. The conflict isn't.
The founder's advisory is an advisor signatory, held to the same binding obligations as any other, and can be removed like any other. FPA takes no referral revenue from advisors and accepts no money from processors in any form, including sponsorship, advertising and event fees.
FPA evaluates. The advisory acts. A standards body that is quietly a sales channel is worse than none, because it spends the credibility of the idea.
§ 7 Contact
Corrections, arguments with the rubric, and requests to be counted as a merchant signatory all go to the same place. If you think a grade is wrong, show your work and the correction gets published.