If your business accepts credit or debit cards, there’s one thing you’ve already accepted:
credit card fees are part of the deal.
Every tap, swipe, or online checkout comes with a cost. Usually between 1.5% and 3% per transaction, sometimes more once everything is added up. Most business owners see that number on their statement, sigh, and move on. But that’s only half the story.
The hidden cost behind card payments
Credit card fees are unavoidable. They come from multiple layers: interchange fees, network fees, processor markups, per-transaction charges, and occasional dispute or compliance fees. You can’t simply turn them off, and for most businesses, trying to optimize every fee line is a losing battle.
What often goes unnoticed is what happens after the sale.
When a customer pays by card, the money doesn’t disappear. It lands in your account. And then, in most cases, it just sits there. For days or weeks, card revenue waits in a low- or zero-interest account until it’s used for payroll, rent, taxes, vendors… That idle time is a cost too, just a quieter one.
Over months and years, leaving earned cash idle adds up to a meaningful loss of value, especially for businesses with steady card volume. The problem isn’t only how much card processing takes from you, but how little your incoming cash does for you afterward.
Treat card revenue like an asset, not just income
Card revenue is usually thought of as money that will soon be spent. In practice, it behaves more like an asset with time value. The longer it sits idle, the more opportunity is lost. The sooner it reaches an account that earns interest, the more it contributes back to the business.
This doesn’t require changing how much you sell or how customers pay. It’s about shortening the gap between when money is earned and when it starts working for you.
By directing card settlements into an interest-earning account, or by automatically transferring funds there on a schedule aligned with cash flow needs, businesses can reduce idle time without adding operational complexity.
LiaFi is built around this principle. It’s designed to help businesses earn on the cash they already generate, without relying on constant attention or manual decisions.
What this looks like in practice
Consider a business processing around $70,000 per month in card transactions. With typical processing rates, this can result in roughly $1,600 to $2,400 in monthly card fees.
Now assume that, by receiving card settlements sooner or by using automated transfers, the business maintains an average balance of $50,000 in an interest-bearing LiaFi account. At a 3.10% Annual Percentage Yield*, that balance could generate approximately $1,500 in interest over the course of a year.
That amount won’t cancel out card fees entirely. But it does concretely offset them, without changing pricing, negotiating processors, or adding operational burden. As transaction volume and balances increase, the impact grows proportionally.
The bottom line
If your business accepts card payments, card fees are part of reality. Letting card revenue sit idle doesn’t have to be. The difference isn’t discipline or remembering to move money at the right time. It’s having a system that treats incoming cash intentionally, every day, without friction.
LiaFi doesn’t promise to eliminate costs. It gives businesses a way to recover part of what card processing takes by putting their existing revenue to work as soon as it arrives.
Less idle cash.
More control over timing.
And money that contributes back to the business while you focus on running it.
* LiaFi Business Account is a variable rate account. The rate may change after the account is opened. Rates are subject to change at anytime.