Independent payment advisory · Nationwide
Clarity before change.
Most businesses are told what to buy before anyone has looked at what they already have. We work the other way around. We review your fees, technology, integrations and workflows first, then tell you what we would do if it were our own business, including when the answer is to change nothing.
No cost. No pressure. Clear answers. Better understanding.
in the payments industry
PayTech Women (opens in a new tab)
Philadelphia-Delaware Valley Chapter
verified Google reviews
multiple processors, gateways and platforms
The approach
We review everything first.
Evaluate
Your entire payment environment. Costs, technology, reporting, integrations and daily operations.
Advise
We tell you what we'd recommend if it were our own business, even if that means changing nothing.
Implement
Only when a better solution genuinely improves your business.
Where the conversation starts
Every review starts with your pain points.
Most businesses reach out because something changed. Costs moved, technology stopped keeping up, a new channel or location created new questions. These are the seven we hear most. We begin with questions, not recommendations.
“Our processing costs keep increasing and nobody can explain why.”
We identify what changed, where the increase came from, and whether anything should be done about it.
“We are being told we need to switch processors, but we do not know if that is actually necessary.”
We evaluate the entire payment environment first. Sometimes a change makes sense. Sometimes staying exactly where you are is the better decision.
“Everything works. We just think we are paying too much.”
If the technology and processor are serving the business well, we evaluate the processor-controlled fee structure and determine whether better economics can be negotiated without unnecessary disruption. How that works.
“Can we pass our credit card fees to our customers?”
Possibly, but the structure matters. Surcharging, service fees, convenience fees and cash discount programs are not interchangeable, and the rules can vary by how the payment is accepted, the card type, the processor, the technology, the network, and applicable law. We evaluate what the business is trying to accomplish, determine which structure may be appropriate, and make sure the payment flow, disclosures, technology and implementation are aligned before anything is turned on.
“We are writing off payments we should have collected.”
We look at declines, recurring billing, stored credentials, account updater, retry strategy, invoicing and the payment experience to identify revenue that may be falling through the cracks. Uncollected revenue is usually more expensive than your rate.
“Our stores, ecommerce and back-office payment systems do not work together cleanly.”
We map how payments move across every channel and identify where disconnected systems are creating unnecessary cost, reconciliation work, reporting problems or customer friction.
“We are growing and want to get the payment structure right before we replicate it.”
Growth is the right time to evaluate processor structure, technology, integrations, reporting, merchant accounts and payment workflows, before inefficiencies multiply across new locations or channels.
Scope of review
We work for your business.
Not the processor.
Cost is only part of it. Some of the most expensive problems in a payment environment are not fees at all. They are the payments you never managed to collect, and the work created by systems that were never designed to work together. A processor change touches software, reporting, reconciliation, and operations, so we map the full environment before any decision is made.
Revenue performance
Authorization rates, decline performance, failed recurring payments, retry logic, account updater, uncollected revenue.
Payment economics
Interchange qualification and optimization, processor markup, ancillary fees, fee structure, settlement timing, cash flow.
Technology & integration
POS, gateways, ecommerce, ACH, invoicing, software integrations, tokenization, omnichannel architecture.
Operations & reporting
Reconciliation, reporting, deposits, multi-location workflows, refunds, customer profiles, operational efficiency.
Risk & compliance
PCI, chargebacks, dispute exposure, card acceptance rules, compliance considerations, operational risk.
What you receive
The Allure Payment Review.
The review is a defined piece of work, not a sales call with a different name. Five areas examined, and three things in your hands at the end of it.
A written findings summary
What we examined across all five areas and what we actually found, in writing, so it can be forwarded, questioned and kept on file.
A plain explanation of your cost
What is driving what you pay. Which parts are set by the card networks, which parts are set by your processor, and which parts are actually negotiable.
A recommendation, with the reasoning
What we would do and why, ranked by what it is worth. If the recommendation is to leave your environment alone, that is what the summary will say.
What it takes from you: a recent processing statement and one conversation. There is no cost for the review, no contract to sign to receive it, and no obligation to change anything afterward.
Access and fit
Carefully selected payment partners.
One recommendation based on your business.
Allure Payments works with leading processors, gateways and payment technology providers, so a recommendation can be built around the needs of the business rather than one provider's product.
The right fit depends on the payment environment, the technology, the integrations, the risk profile, the industry, growth plans, and how the business actually accepts and manages payments. Sometimes that means changing providers. Sometimes it means improving the environment already in place.
The partner relationship supports the recommendation. It does not drive it.
Selected payment and technology relationships
Processing
- Elavon
- Fiserv / Clover
- CardConnect
- Global Payments / Worldpay
Technology
- Authorize.net
- Biller Genie
- QuickBooks
Environments we work in
Your payments have to connect to everything else.
Most payment problems in a sophisticated business are not at the terminal. They are at the seam between the payment environment and the systems that run the company.
ERP
NetSuite, Microsoft Dynamics 365 and Business Central, Sage Intacct, Acumatica, SAP, Epicor
Accounting & AR
Bill.com, invoicing, recurring billing and receivables automation platforms
Ecommerce
Shopify, BigCommerce, Adobe Commerce, WooCommerce, hosted and custom checkout
POS & retail
Lightspeed, Clover, Oracle Micros, self-service kiosks, integrated and standalone terminals
Connective layer
Gateways, middleware and connectors, tokenization, stored credentials, account updater
Multi-location
Merchant ID structure, cross-channel settlement, consolidated reporting, franchise and multi-site workflows
Platform and product names are listed to describe the environments we work in. All third-party marks are the property of their respective owners and are shown for identification purposes only.
One possible outcome
When nothing is broken except the fee structure.
Sometimes the review finds an environment that is genuinely working. The terminals are fine, the software talks to accounting, the team knows the workflow. In that case a conversion would cost more in disruption than it returns, and the right move is to negotiate the processor-controlled portion of your fee structure inside the account you already have. Same processor, same technology, same workflow.
Payment costs do not stay static.
Network programs, interchange schedules, processor markup, assessments and qualification behavior all change over time, and not in ways a statement makes obvious. A review separates true network cost from the processor-controlled part of the fee structure.
We know which lines are actually negotiable.
Interchange schedules are set by the card networks, not negotiated by processors. What does vary is qualification, the data being passed, card mix, routing, markup, ancillary fees and downgrades. That is where statement analysis matters.
Thirty years of reading these statements.
Processor statements are written in a language business owners were never expected to learn. Knowing where to look is the difference between a lower number and understanding why the number was wrong.
Same equipment. Same software. No downtime.
No conversion, no retraining, no interruption. Only the economics change.
How a negotiation engagement is structured
If your fee structure is already competitive, we say so and there is no invoice.
- The fee
- The fee is based on a share of documented savings and is agreed in writing before any work begins. The percentage depends on the size and complexity of the engagement.
- The period
- The engagement period is agreed in advance. Once that period ends, the savings remain entirely with your business.
- The baseline
- We establish the baseline together before any changes are made, using your actual processing statements, so the measurement cannot be moved after the fact.
- How it is verified
- Savings are measured against actual statements, not projections. You see the calculation, and nothing is invoiced against savings that are not documented.
- What is excluded
- Changes in card-network schedules and assessments are not treated as savings created by Allure.
No retainer. No upfront fee. The structure is agreed in writing before the engagement begins.
An Allure client
Twenty-two locations. One payment environment.
A specialty retailer running 22 stores, an online storefront and mobile acceptance, at more than $57 million a year in card volume.
The environment had been assembled a piece at a time, which is how most environments this size get built. No one had looked at all of it at once. The rate was only part of the problem.
What the review found
Card-present and card-not-present volume was being judged by two different standards. Gateway and processor charges sat in several places at once, so no single report showed what acceptance actually cost. Settlement across the three channels took more work to reconcile than it should have. And no one inside the business could say with confidence which line items were network expense and which ones the processor set.
What we did about it
We mapped every channel, gateway and fee back to its source, then rebuilt the account as one omnichannel structure instead of three overlapping ones. Cleaner pricing. Reporting that reconciles. One view of what acceptance costs across all 22 locations.
The rate turned out to be the smallest part of it. What the business got back was an environment that behaves like one system.
Allure Payments
Independent payment advisory · Nationwide
The part nobody publishes
How I'm compensated.
The review itself is always free. After that there are two arrangements, and you should know which one applies before we start.
OneIf you change processors
If a change is the right answer, I stay in it with you. I remain your direct point of contact after implementation, not a support queue and not a rotating account manager. You keep access to more than thirty years of doing this work, and to relationships with providers I have selected carefully and use repeatedly. When a fee appears that nobody can explain, when a terminal or an integration stops behaving, when you open a location or add a channel, you call me and I handle it.
That ongoing relationship is how I am paid. The processor or platform you choose compensates me through a share of the processing revenue on the account, for as long as I am servicing it. I work with multiple providers, so the recommendation is based on fit, not one company's product. And when the right answer is to stay where you are, I will tell you that too.
TwoIf you stay and I negotiate your fee structure
Merchant statements can look like a foreign language. I know exactly where to look. Within minutes I can usually identify the processor-controlled costs, the fee structure that can be challenged, and where the account may be working against you.
If staying with your current processor is the right move, I negotiate behind the scenes on your behalf. Same processor. Same technology. Same workflow.
You are paying for an advocate who knows the language, knows what to challenge, and knows how to negotiate it. If I do not create documented savings, there is no fee.
A processor relationship may generate ongoing compensation while the account remains active. A negotiated-savings engagement runs for the agreed period and then ends. The percentage and term are agreed in writing before any work begins, and nothing is invoiced against savings that are not documented.
You should always know how the person advising you is compensated.
Why annually
Nothing about your business has to change for your costs to.
Rates change
Network schedules, processor markup and qualification behavior all shift. Your effective rate can move without a clear explanation.
Terms evolve
Contracts, fees and service terms change over time. Few businesses read every update buried in a statement.
Technology moves
Payment technology, integrations and automation keep moving. A review often surfaces ways to cut manual work.
Don't take our word for it.
These are the businesses we've served. Their words, not ours.
Anita is absolutely the best person to have on your side when dealing with credit card payments. Her extensive experience and deep knowledge make the process seamless and stress-free. She truly knows her stuff and is always ready to help. Highly recommend.
I can't speak highly enough of the professionalism, attention to detail and value my organization has witnessed with Allure Payments as a credit card processing vendor. Anita is a call or email away if any needs arise. I have been very happy going on two years of uninterrupted service.
We recently had the pleasure of connecting with Anita, and we are beyond grateful. You won't be disappointed working with her. She is incredibly knowledgeable, respectful, and above all reliable — the most important quality when switching companies. She's made this entire process so smooth.
The person behind Allure Payments
Every business deserves payment guidance based on what's best for the business, not what's best for the processor. That's exactly why I founded Allure Payments.
After more than 30 years in payments, I've learned that the best payment decision isn't always the lowest rate or the newest technology. It's the one that supports how your business actually operates and where you intend to take it.
So I look at the full payment environment, make the complicated parts clear, and recommend what is genuinely in your best interest, even when that means changing nothing.
Chapter Chair, PayTech Women (opens in a new tab), Philadelphia-Delaware Valley Chapter Connect on LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
Request a payment review
Every payment review starts with a conversation.
Share your contact information and I'll be in touch to learn more about your business. What's working, what's not, and how I can help. If you'd rather just talk, call or email me directly.
I'll personally follow up within one business day.
Thank you. Your review request is in.
I'll personally reach out within one business day to learn more about what's happening in your payment environment and what prompted you to reach out.
If you have a recent processing statement handy, keep it nearby for our conversation. One month is usually enough to give me a strong starting point.
If something is urgent, call me directly at (484) 431-5670.
Anita MeeksFounder, Allure Payments
We'll store and process this information to respond to your request, as described in our Privacy Policy. You may opt out at any time.