Signs it is time to revisit payment gateways

Most teams know this matters. Fewer have decided who owns it. A few signals that payment gateways is due some attention.

Small percentage changes matter here because they apply to every order, every month. If two people in the business would answer this differently, that gap is the actual problem.

The signals

• Nobody can say when it was last reviewed
• The answer depends on who you ask
• Offer the methods your customers already use
• Fees differ more than the marketing pages suggest

How we handle it

Never store card details you do not need. The teams that handle this well are rarely the ones with the biggest budgets. Assume whoever inherits this will have half your context and none of your patience.

What this looks like day to day

In e-commerce every friction point has a price attached, and the arithmetic is unusually easy to check. Three things worth confirming about payment gateways before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Fees differ more than the marketing pages suggest — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

If you want a second opinion on how yours is set up, ask.