Tool Gate · How it works
How the Payment Processing Effective-Rate & Fee-Padding Audit gate works
How the Payment Processing Effective-Rate & Fee-Padding Audit scores a merchant statement: a junk-fee gate forces BEING BLED when padding tops 15% of the bill — which is how a statement that prices fair on the effective rate alone still reads BEING BLED because 16% is junk fees.
How the gate works
This tool grades a processing statement's effective rate against a card-present / card-not-present target - then floors the verdict to BEING BLED the moment junk fees or unexplained downgrades cross their threshold, even when the headline rate looks fair. Each control is marked from your own evidence and weighted into a 0–100 score — and then the score is run past a gate that can only make the verdict worse.
The 4 weighted controls
| Signal | Weight |
|---|---|
| Effective rate vs. target | 45 |
| Downgrade share (unexplained) | 20 |
| Pricing-model transparency | 10 |
| Junk-fee load | 25 |
| Total | 100 |
The verdict bands
If junk fees are 15% or more of the total bill, or unexplained downgrades are 20% or more of volume, the verdict is forced to BEING BLED regardless of how fair the headline rate reads - padding hides in the fee mix, not the rate.
In the worked sample it scores 76 out of 100 and still reads BEING BLED — The effective rate is 2.10% against a 2.20% card-present target - on the rate alone this statement reads FAIRLY PRICED, and the score is 76. But junk fees are 16% of the total bill ($210 of $1,302) - over the 15% ceiling - so the padding gate overrides the rate-only read and forces BEING BLED: the money isn't hiding in the rate, it's hiding in the junk-fee line a rate calculator never checks. The one thing to fix first: Strip the junk fees - they are 16% of your total bill ($210 of $1,302), the driver of the $2,520/yr you can reclaim even though the rate itself looks fair..
Common questions
Can something score well on the How the Payment Processing Effective-Rate & Fee-Padding gate works and still fail?
Yes. The weighted score is run past a worsen-only gate — the Junk-fee / downgrade padding gate — that can only make the verdict worse. In the worked sample it scores 76 out of 100 and still reads BEING BLED, because the effective rate is 2.10% against a 2.20% card-present target - on the rate alone this statement reads FAIRLY PRICED, and the score is 76. But junk fees are 16% of the total bill ($210 of $1,302) - over the 15% ceiling - so the padding gate overrides the rate-only read and forces BEING BLED: the money isn't hiding in the rate, it's hiding in the junk-fee line a rate calculator never checks.
What is a worsen-only gate?
A dispositive rule that can only lower a verdict, never raise it. One fatal flaw overrides an otherwise-good score, because a single disqualifying gap shouldn't hide behind a high average. The tool also names the one thing to fix first — here, "Strip the junk fees - they are 16% of your total bill ($210 of $1,302), the driver of the $2,520/yr you can reclaim even though the rate itself looks fair.".
Audits the statement and thresholds you enter - a planning aid, not financial, accounting, or legal advice; sets no rate and contacts no processor.
Embed this diagram
Free to share and embed with attribution (CC BY 4.0) — keep the link to redhub.ai.
Interactive — renders the live diagram
<iframe src="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/payment-processing-effective-rate-fee-padding-audit.html" title="How the Payment Processing Effective-Rate & Fee-Padding Audit gate works — RedHub AI" width="760" height="1752" loading="lazy" style="border:0;width:100%;max-width:760px"></iframe>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif"><a href="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/payment-processing-effective-rate-fee-padding-audit">How the Payment Processing Effective-Rate & Fee-Padding Audit gate works</a> — by <a href="https://redhub.ai">RedHub AI</a>, the AI that tells you when to doubt it.</p>Image + link — a static picture for any blog
<a href="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/payment-processing-effective-rate-fee-padding-audit"><img src="https://redhub.ai/visuals/tool/payment-processing-effective-rate-fee-padding-audit-share.png" alt="Diagram of the Payment Processing Effective-Rate & Fee-Padding Audit: a statement pricing fair on effective rate and a junk-fee gate forcing BEING BLED at 16% padding." width="760" loading="lazy" style="max-width:100%;height:auto;border-radius:16px"></a>
<p style="font:14px/1.5 system-ui,sans-serif"><a href="https://redhub.ai">RedHub AI</a> — the AI that tells you when to doubt it.</p>
This is how Payment Processing Effective-Rate & Fee-Padding Audit works. More diagrams in the Visual Field Guide.