Why did we make this change?
Like many other restaurants throughout [city], we have made the decision to pass through the credit card processing fee as of [date]. Traditionally [restaurant] has absorbed these fees, but the rising operational costs and slimming margins have made this practice unsustainable. By passing along this fee, we’re able to preserve the high level of food, service, and hospitality you’ve come to expect. In order to provide you with optionality in how you pay, we have started to use Ande to collect our payment. Their platform allows you to pay via credit card (with +fee) or via ACH/wire (no added fee). We appreciate your understanding and continued support as we adapt to ensure a stronger, more resilient future for our restaurant.
What is Ande?
Ande empowers companies to take control of corporate entertainment expenses with real-time visibility and powerful tools to optimize spend. For restaurants, Ande unlocks efficiency, actionable insights, and new corporate partnership opportunities. Our payment solution integrates seamlessly into existing workflows, reducing costs by 2–4% and delivering immediate savings to the bottom line. For enterprises, Ande integrates into the Enterprise tech stack and financial workflows to streamline the corporate dining experience from booking through expense reporting.
What payment options are available?
The checkout experience allows end clients to pay Ande by whichever method they prefer - Credit Card or ACH. Regardless of how the client pays, Ande will always ACH funds to the restaurant net of the processing fee.
Why is there a fee for credit card payments?
Every time a credit card transaction is processed fees are due to the issuing bank, the card network processors as well as the payment processors. The total “processing fee” includes interchange fees, assessment fees, card network fees, and typically markups as well. These costs add up quickly. Interchange fees and card network fees are variable based on the card type used and are higher than baseline with rewards cards and other premium offers.
Can I make this shift without Ande?
Ande is uniquely positioned to power this shift because of optimizations we have built around processing rates, most commonly known as L2 & L3 Rates. Card Networks exclude Restaurant Merchant Category Codes (MCC) from this benefit. Since Ande is not a restaurant, but rather a B2B services business, we have access to this benefit. Additionally, corporate clients would prefer to pay via ACH at scale, however, the requirements needed to approve each individual restaurant as a vendor are quite cumbersome. Ande streamlines this by being the vendor that requires approval.