TL;DR
For B2B card acceptance, Helcim and Stax win on cost because both pass interchange through instead of charging a flat rate. Helcim applies Level 2 and Level 3 data automatically on qualifying commercial cards and keeps 30 percent of the savings; Stax documents Level 2 data sent through its API. On Visa corporate and purchasing cards, data that qualifies for Visa's Product 3 rate cuts interchange from 2.70% + $0.10 to 1.75% + $0.10 card-not-present. Stripe wins on API depth for SaaS billing. Worldpay suits large merchants who want a negotiated contract. PayPal supports Level 2 and Level 3 data through its API but documents the savings only for IC++ merchants, and Square and Clover do not publish Level 2/3 support, so none of the three should anchor a B2B strategy built on corporate or purchasing cards.
How we ranked
B2B card acceptance is not the same problem as B2C. Average tickets run higher, corporate and purchasing cards make up a bigger share of the mix, and the interchange penalty for missing line-item data is steep. We weighted six criteria:
- Pricing model. Interchange-plus preferred. Flat-rate processors hide the markup and keep the savings on cheaper cards.
- Level 2 and Level 3 data. Whether the provider supports enhanced data on commercial cards, and how much work it takes to send it.
- Commercial card rates. What the processor charges above interchange on Visa Business, Mastercard Corporate, and Amex.
- Invoicing and ACH. Hosted invoice pages, recurring billing, ACH priced as a percentage with a cap.
- Contract terms. Month-to-month preferred. An ETF above $295 is a disqualifier.
- Settlement. Funding inside 2 business days on standard rails.
Commercial card interchange numbers come from the Visa interchange schedule effective Oct 24, 2026, the Visa fees page and Mastercard interchange tables. Provider pricing comes from each company's public pricing page, checked Oct 2026; Level 2/3 details were checked Nov 2026. Effective rates come from our dataset, which assumes a $50 average sale and a mix of 60 percent credit and 40 percent debit, so a commercial-card-heavy mix will pay more interchange on every provider.
At a glance
| Provider | Headline pricing | Contract | Settlement | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Helcim | IC + 0.40 to 0.50% + $0.08 to $0.25 | No contract | Next business morning | $25K to $500K B2B volume | Keeps 30% of Level 2/3 savings |
| Stax | $99 to $199+/mo by annual volume + IC + $0.08 in person, $0.15 online | No cancellation fee; length not published | Next business day | $50K+ B2B with steady mix | Costs more than Helcim at $10K a month |
| Payment Depot | Interchange-plus by quote; no prices listed | No cancellation fees; $0 setup | Not published | Buyers who will get a full written quote | Confirm L2/L3 routing on your plan |
| Stripe | 2.9% + $0.30 online standard | None | 2 business days | SaaS, recurring B2B billing | Level 2/3 savings only on IC+ pricing |
| Worldpay | Custom pricing (contact sales) | Negotiated | Negotiated | Large B2B merchants | No published prices or terms |
| PayPal | 2.89% + $0.29 to 3.49% + $0.49 | None | Standard withdrawal free; instant 1.5% | Sub-$25K invoicing | L2/L3 savings documented for IC++ merchants only |
Helcim
Helcim publishes interchange-plus rates with no monthly fee and applies automatic volume discounts as merchants cross tiers. Card-not-present pricing is interchange plus 0.50 percent plus $0.25; in-person is interchange plus 0.40 percent plus $0.08, per Helcim's pricing page, both under $50K a month. The markup compresses at higher volume, which matters for B2B operators above $100K monthly.
The B2B-relevant feature is Helcim's Level 2/3 interchange optimization. Helcim says it pulls the needed data from your invoices automatically, with no extra setup, and keeps 30 percent of the savings it produces. New Visa merchants can face a 30 to 90 day verification period before Level 3 rates apply. On a Visa corporate or purchasing card taken online, qualifying for Product 3 drops interchange from 2.70% + $0.10 to 1.75% + $0.10, per Visa's published commercial interchange schedule.
There is no contract and no termination or cancellation fee. Deposits arrive the next business morning. Helcim's hosted invoice and recurring billing tools handle AR for teams that do not want a separate billing platform; recurring payments carry an extra 0.4 percent.
Who it's for: B2B sellers from $25K to $500K monthly with a mix of consumer and commercial cards.
Who should avoid it: operators above $1M monthly that need BIN-level routing or named account management.
Stax
Stax sells subscription pricing: a flat monthly fee plus interchange plus a per-transaction cost, with zero percentage markup. Per Stax's pricing page, the membership is $99 a month up to $150,000 a year in volume, $139 up to $250,000 and $199 or more above that, with per-transaction costs of $0.08 in-person and $0.15 card-not-present on top of interchange.
The math only works above a break-even point. In our dataset at $50K a month, Stax costs 2.40 percent online against 2.55 percent for Helcim, and at $250K it costs 2.08 percent against 2.45 percent. At $10K a month the subscription does not earn its keep: 2.99 percent against 2.70 percent for Helcim.
Stax's developer docs say most accounts can be configured for Level 2 processing on Visa and Mastercard business cards, with the purchase order number, tax and shipping amounts sent through its API. The doc does not cover Level 3. Since Visa ended its standalone Level 2 rates in April 2026, ask Stax in writing how it qualifies Visa commercial cards for Product 3.
The pricing page lists no cancellation fees but does not publish a contract length. Funding is next business day.
Who it's for: B2B operators at $50K monthly and up with stable volume.
Who should avoid it: seasonal businesses or merchants near $10K monthly, where the membership fee outruns the savings.
Payment Depot
Payment Depot sells interchange-plus pricing by quote. Payment Depot's pricing page (archived Oct 2025) lists no monthly or per-transaction price, only $0 setup and no cancellation fees, so the full cost cannot be worked out from public information.
Level 2 and Level 3 support depends on the gateway, so confirm before signing that yours submits the line-item fields required for Level 3 and Visa Product 3 qualification. On Visa corporate and purchasing cards the gap is 0.95 percentage points of interchange, per Visa's schedule.
Ask for contract terms, funding times, and support hours in writing, since none are on its pricing page.
Who it's for: B2B merchants looking for wholesale pricing who will get a full written quote.
Who should avoid it: operators who want published, comparable pricing before they talk to sales.
Stripe
Stripe lists 2.9 percent plus $0.30 for online card transactions and 2.7 percent plus $0.05 for in-person on the standard plan, per its pricing page. Stripe supports Level 2 and Level 3 data for commercial cards through line items in the Payment Intents API, but its docs say the interchange savings are for IC+ users; on the standard flat rate they do not reach you.
The flat-rate model is the friction. In our dataset at $250K monthly volume, Stripe's online rate is 3.50 percent against 2.45 percent for Helcim and 2.08 percent for Stax. Against Helcim, that gap is $2,625 a month or $31,500 a year.
Stripe offsets that with the strongest B2B tooling on this list: subscription billing, dunning, tax automation via Stripe Tax, hosted invoicing with ACH (0.8 percent capped at $5), multi-currency acceptance, and a developer ecosystem few competitors match. For a SaaS company billing 5,000 small ARR contracts per month, the engineering savings can outweigh the markup.
There is no contract; Stripe is pay as you go.
Who it's for: SaaS, marketplaces, and B2B software where billing complexity drives the choice.
Who should avoid it: B2B merchants with stable volume above $150K monthly that take cards via terminal or a basic invoice flow.
Worldpay
Worldpay is the enterprise option, part of Global Payments since January 2026. There is no public flat rate; pricing is negotiated per merchant, per its public site.
For B2B operators above $1M monthly, the reasons to talk to Worldpay are negotiated interchange-plus pricing, Level 2 and Level 3 support, routing options for commercial cards, and a dedicated account manager. None of these come with published prices, so get each in writing.
The tradeoffs are contract length and onboarding friction. Contract length, termination fees, and underwriting time are all negotiated. Pricing is opaque without an active sales conversation.
Who it's for: B2B merchants above $1M monthly with large tickets and commercial-card-heavy mix.
Who should avoid it: anyone under $250K monthly. The contract overhead is not worth it.
PayPal
PayPal is on this list as a counter-example. PayPal Checkout costs 3.49 percent plus $0.49, and the Advanced Credit and Debit Card rate is 2.89 percent plus $0.29 (subject to PayPal's approval), per the PayPal fee schedule. Manually entered in-person cards on PayPal POS cost 3.49 percent plus $0.09.
For B2B, the issue is who keeps the commercial-card savings. PayPal's developer docs say U.S. corporate and purchase cards can qualify for Level 2 and Level 3 processing when you send the data through its Orders API, but that IC++ merchants are the ones who benefit from the reduced interchange. On PayPal's flat rates, the lower interchange is not passed to you.
The one B2B use case where PayPal still earns its place: invoicing for low-volume operators who want consumer trust at checkout and do not run enough commercial card volume to justify a B2B-grade processor.
Who it's for: under $25K monthly B2B with mostly consumer-card buyers.
Who should avoid it: anyone running a meaningful share of commercial cards.
Verdict
For B2B merchants in the $25K to $500K monthly volume range, Helcim is the default choice. Interchange-plus pricing, automatic Level 2 and Level 3 optimization on commercial cards, no monthly fee, and no contract add up to a low effective rate without lock-in. The saving versus Stripe's flat rate is $31,500 a year at $250K monthly in our dataset, before any commercial-card savings, based on each processor's posted rates and the Visa commercial interchange tables.
From about $50K a month with stable volume, Stax's subscription model costs less than Helcim in our dataset by stripping percentage markup entirely; confirm how it handles Visa Product 3 data before committing a commercial-card-heavy book. Above $1M monthly with large tickets, a negotiated Worldpay contract can be worth pricing. Stripe wins only when developer time and billing complexity outweigh the markup. PayPal, Square, and Clover should not anchor a B2B card acceptance strategy.