Read your current agreement first
Three things matter: the term and auto-renewal language, the early termination fee, and whether your equipment is leased. Processing agreements and equipment leases are separate contracts, and the lease is usually the one that cannot be walked away from.
Auto-renewal clauses are common and often require written notice inside a specific window. Missing that window can cost you a full extra year, so find the date before you do anything else.
Get the comparison in writing
Bring three consecutive statements. A serious quote will show your current effective rate, the proposed markup as a percentage plus per-item amount, every monthly fee by name, and the projected effective rate at your actual volume and card mix.
If a quote will not put those numbers on paper, it is not a quote. And if the projection assumes a card mix different from your statements, it is a sales document rather than an analysis.
The switching sequence
Done in this order, nothing breaks:
- Board the new account and confirm the merchant ID and funding bank details
- Configure the gateway or program the terminal, then run test transactions
- For online businesses, run the new account in parallel for a few days on a slice of traffic
- Migrate stored cards as tokens between PCI-compliant providers — never ask customers to re-enter card numbers
- Move recurring billing schedules and confirm the next charge date on each one
- Switch primary, watch the first live batch settle end to end, and confirm the deposit hits the right account
- Only then send written cancellation to the old provider, inside their notice window
- Keep the old account open, at zero volume, until at least one full statement cycle has closed
What people get wrong
- Cancelling the old account before the first new deposit clears — leaves you with no working rail if anything is misconfigured
- Forgetting recurring billing, so subscription customers get missed charges or double charges
- Missing the auto-renewal notice window and paying for another year alongside the new account
- Assuming an equipment lease ends with the processing agreement
- Not updating the billing descriptor, which spikes disputes from customers who no longer recognize the charge
- Switching during your busiest week instead of your quietest
Set a date to check the math
Put a reminder sixty days out. Pull the new statement, calculate the effective rate, and compare it to what you were promised. If it does not match, that is a conversation worth having immediately rather than in a year.
Any provider worth using will do this with you unprompted. That single follow-up is the difference between a quote and a relationship.