How to Switch Merchant Services Providers Without a Gap in Sales

Switching credit card processors takes some work, so it should fix a real problem. These are the common ones:

• Your costs crept up. Your sales look the same, but you pay more in fees each quarter. New line items or small rate increases are a common cause.
• Your statement is tiered. Lines such as "qualified," "mid-qualified" and "non-qualified" mean your provider sorts sales into price buckets it controls. You can't see what the card networks actually charged.
• You can't work out what you pay. If you can't find your total fees and divide them by your card sales, the statement is working against you.
• Your deposits are held or delayed without a clear reason or an end date.
• Support doesn't answer. You can't reach a person when a payment fails or a customer disputes a charge.
• Your business outgrew the setup. You now sell online, bill customers monthly or process far more volume than when you signed.

If only price bothers you, it's worth asking your current provider to match a better offer first. Bring numbers. The next two sections show you how to get them.

Your merchant agreement decides what leaving costs. Find it (or ask your provider for a copy) and look for these terms:

Equipment leases deserve extra care. Closing your merchant account usually doesn't end a terminal lease. You may owe the remaining payments whether you use the terminal or not. Check who the lease is with, how many payments are left and whether you can buy the equipment out.

Timing can save you money. If the exit fee is large and your renewal date is close, it can cost less to send a non-renewal notice and wait. Send every notice in writing and keep a copy with the date.

The gateway may have its own terms too. Authorize.Net's pricing page says its gateway "has no contract requirement and no early termination fees" (checked September 28, 2026). A merchant account bundled with it can still have separate terms.

For what else to question on a contract, see fees to question, including early termination fees.

Don't switch for a headline rate. Compare what you'd pay on your own sales. The number to beat is your effective rate:

Total fees ÷ total card sales = effective rate

Add every line on the statement: percentage fees, per-transaction fees, and monthly, gateway, PCI and statement fees. Then ask each new provider to price the same month of sales, including your card mix and your average sale.

Ask how each offer is built. With interchange-plus pricing, you pay the card networks' cost plus a markup you can see on every statement. Our guide to interchange-plus pricing and reading your statement walks through each line.

Also count what switching costs: any exit fee, lease payments you'll still owe, and the work of reconnecting your website or software. A lower rate should pay those back in a reasonable time.

Your setup has two parts, and you can change one without the other:

• The merchant account is your account with an acquiring bank. It approves you to take cards, deposits your money and handles chargebacks. This is where most of your fees come from.
• The payment gateway (such as Authorize.Net or Cybersource) sends each payment from your website, invoice or virtual terminal to the processor. Your checkout, reports and saved cards are connected to it.

If your problem is price, holds or support, you may only need a new merchant account. Keeping the same gateway means less to rebuild. Ask your new provider whether you can keep your existing gateway account or whether you'll get a new one. The answer depends on the providers involved, so plan for either.

If you get a new gateway account, expect to:

• Enter new API credentials in your website, cart or billing software
• Set up fraud filters, users, receipts and notifications again
• Keep the old gateway login so you can refund past sales and download reports

Already on Authorize.Net? Our guide to switching the merchant account behind Authorize.Net covers the details. Authorize.Net and Cybersource refer merchants to START. START finds the right merchant account, underwrites it and sends the account details back to the gateway so it's connected. For most merchants, approval takes 1 to 5 business days, and a new Authorize.Net gateway is usually set up within 24 business hours of approval.

They can, but only if you plan for it. This is the step that most often goes wrong.

When a customer saves a card, the full card number is usually stored by your gateway or payment platform, not by you. You hold a token: a stand-in code that only works inside that system. The token belongs to the gateway, not to your merchant account. So:

• If you keep the same gateway account and only change the merchant account, saved cards and subscriptions usually stay where they are. Confirm this with your new provider before you rely on it.
• If you move to a new gateway, the tokens don't work there. The card data has to be moved securely from the old system to the new one, or customers have to enter their cards again.

Card data can only be moved between companies that meet PCI security standards, and each platform has its own rules. For example, Stripe's documentation says it will only transfer card data to a PCI DSS Level 1 compliant processor, and that it doesn't export subscriptions or payment history (checked September 28, 2026). Other platforms differ, so ask yours.

Before you close anything, get answers to these:

1. Old provider: Will you export stored card data to my new provider? How long does it take, and is there a fee?
2. New provider or gateway: Can you import it? In what format?
3. Subscriptions: Who rebuilds the billing schedules (amounts, dates, plans) on the new side?
4. Fallback: If the cards can't move, how will you ask customers to update their payment details, and by when?

Time the cut-over between billing runs so no customer is charged twice or missed. Authorize.Net users can read how saved cards and recurring billing work in Authorize.Net.

Here's how to switch payment processors in an order that keeps you taking payments the whole time:

1. Read your contract and note the end date, exit costs, notice period and any lease.
2. Get a statement review and compare offers on the same month of sales.
3. Apply and get approved. Don't give notice until you are. Our guide on how to get a merchant account lists what underwriters usually ask for.
4. Connect the gateway to your website, cart, invoicing or virtual terminal, and run test sales.
5. Settle your saved-card plan using the questions above.
6. Run both accounts for a short overlap. Move live sales to the new account and wait until the first deposits reach your bank.
7. Give written notice to the old provider, following the notice clause. Keep a copy.
8. Download your records from the old account: transaction history, statements and reports. You'll want them for taxes and for disputes on old sales.
9. Return or buy out equipment and keep proof of return.
10. Check your statements. On the old account, watch for a final statement, closing fees and holdbacks. On the new one, confirm that the rates and fees on your first full statement match what you were quoted. Work out your effective rate again and compare.

Refunds and chargebacks on sales made through the old account still go through the old account. Keep access until those have run their course.

A reserve is money your provider keeps back to cover future chargebacks and refunds. If you have one, switching doesn't release it right away. Many agreements let the provider hold it for months after the account closes.

Find the post-closure hold period in your agreement and budget for it. You may have an old reserve still held while a new provider starts one. For how reserves release and how to track yours, see switching processors without losing your reserve.

Everything above assumes you're leaving on your own schedule. If a provider closed your account, the steps change. You need a new account fast, your funds may be held, and the new underwriter will ask why you were closed.

• If a payment app closed you, see what to do when Stripe or Square shuts you down.
• If a bank-backed merchant account was terminated, check whether you were added to the card networks' list of terminated merchants. Our guide to the MATCH list explains what it is and how to find out.

Switching in Canada? The Code of Conduct gives Canadian merchants extra rights. See how to switch payment processors in Canada.