Statement teardown · Dojo
The restaurant that negotiated its Amex problem away
A £106 average bill, one in five payments on Amex - and an Amex rate negotiated to 0.99% where others pay 1.90%.
- The business
- an independent restaurant in inner London
- The document
- Monthly Dojo invoice (31 days)
- Period
- a spring trading month
- Card sales billed
- £43,811.95
- Payments / average
- 413 / £106.08
- Fees (ex VAT) / effective rate
- £447.17 / 1.02%
The saving in this document
£1,052 a year from one negotiated line
The 0.99% Amex rate in this invoice saves £87.68 a month against the standard 1.90% the other merchants in this series pay - £1,052 a year at this month's Amex volume, from a single line in a negotiation. The full deal saves more: against the cheapest flat-rate reader (SumUp at 1.69%, £740.42 for this volume), the invoice's £447.17 is £293.25 a month lower, £3,519 a year.
Where the money went, as billed
Debit cards
251 transactions, £26,014.20 at 0.75% = £195.11
American Express
85 transactions, £9,634.75 at 0.99% = £95.38 - the standout line: both other Dojo merchants in this series pay 1.90% for Amex
Credit cards
74 transactions, £7,869.00 at 1.15% = £90.49
International cards
18 transactions, £1,428.00 surcharged at 1.05% + 13p = £17.33 - tourist trade has a price
Secure transaction fee
342 charges at £0.05 = £17.10
Business cards
3 transactions at 2.25% = £6.62
Hardware
Dojo Go £15.00 + Hardware care £5.00 = £20.00
What the numbers say
At a £106 average bill, this restaurant lives in the opposite world to the convenience stores in this series: the pence hardly matter and the percentages are everything. Its 342 secure-transaction charges at 5p came to £17.10 - 0.04% of turnover, a rounding error - while a quarter-point on any rate line moves the bill by more than £100 a year.
Which is why the Amex line is the whole case study. One payment in five here is American Express, £9,634.75 of the month's volume, and it is billed at 0.99%. The other two Dojo merchants in this series pay 1.90% for exactly the same card. At 1.90%, this restaurant's Amex month would have cost £183.06; at its negotiated 0.99% it cost £95.38. One negotiated line is worth roughly £88 a month here - more than the entire hardware, secure-fee and international bill combined.
The remaining costs read like a map of the clientele: 18 international-card payments surcharged at 1.05% + 13p (£17.33 - tourists), a 1.15% credit rate on £7,869, and a debit rate of 0.75% that is ordinary rather than sharp. The effective rate for the month: 1.02% before VAT, on a card mix that punishes most merchants.
Our verdict
Proof, from a real invoice, that the Amex rate is negotiable - the line most businesses treat as a law of nature. Any Amex-heavy business paying 1.90% has this restaurant as its counter-example. The follow-up question for this merchant is the debit rate: 0.75% is the one line here that another Dojo contract in this series beats.
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Read itRelated reading: the fees calculator, the exit fees database and the switching guide.