How agencies can collect retainers, project fees, and international payments, with current pricing for the main providers compared.
Key takeaways
- On a $5,000 monthly retainer, collecting by ACH at 1.5% capped at $5 costs $5, while a 2.7% + $0.30 card charge costs $135.30.
- Standard US online card rates from mainstream providers cluster between 2.7% and 3.5% per transaction.
- Recurring billing with automatic retries protects retainer revenue from failed cards, which otherwise leak revenue quietly month after month.
The payment solutions that fit marketing agencies best are the ones built around invoices, recurring retainers, and international clients: hosted checkout with subscription billing, ACH or bank debit for large amounts, and multi-currency support for overseas accounts. Pure point-of-sale tools solve a problem agencies don’t have.
Agencies get paid in lumps. A $5,000 retainer on the 1st, a $12,000 project milestone, a $750 ad management fee. At those sizes, percentage fees translate into real money, and the difference between providers stops being a rounding error.
Here’s what to look at, and what the numbers say.
What an Agency Actually Needs from Payments
Four things cover most agencies.
- Recurring billing for retainers. The client agrees once, the charge runs monthly, and failed payments retry automatically instead of waiting for someone to notice.
- Invoices with a pay button. Milestone and one-off work needs an invoice the client can settle by card or bank debit in one click, without a wire form.
- A cheap rail for large amounts. Card percentages hurt at $10,000. Bank debits, with low or capped fees, are built for exactly this.
- International acceptance. An agency in Riga with clients in New York and Dubai needs local payment methods and currency conversion handled by the provider.
If contractors are part of the delivery model, payouts matter too. A payment workflow for remote contractors has its own moving parts, and it’s worth designing alongside how money comes in.
Provider Pricing Compared
Published US rates as of August 2026:
| Provider | Online card rate | Notes for agencies |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 2.9% + $0.30, intl. cards +1.5% | Invoicing adds 0.4% capped at $2 per invoice on standard pricing |
| PayPal | 3.49% + $0.49 (checkout) | Familiar to clients, highest headline rate here |
| Whop | 2.7% + $0.30, intl. cards +1.5% | ACH at 1.5% capped at $5, recurring billing, payouts to 186+ countries |
| Square | 3.3% + $0.30 online | Strong POS heritage, less retainer-focused |
Rates move, so treat the table as a snapshot and check each provider’s pricing page before committing. A fuller comparison of 32 providers is in Whop’s rundown, which includes the international and enterprise options skipped here.
The headline percentage isn’t the whole bill either. Add-ons like fraud screening, 3D Secure, currency conversion, and billing automation each carry their own line items across providers, usually fractions of a percent. Read the full fee schedule, then model a month of your real invoices against it.
The Retainer Math
Run one concrete example, because retainers are where percentage fees compound.
A $5,000 monthly retainer collected by card at 2.7% + $0.30 costs $135.30 every month, or $1,623.60 a year, per client. The same retainer collected by ACH debit at 1.5% capped at $5 costs $5 a month, $60 a year. Across ten retainer clients that’s a difference of more than $15,000 a year, for the same work, from the same clients.
Cards still earn their place. International clients often can’t use US bank debits, some CFOs simply prefer card on file, and card payments clear in days rather than the 3 to 5 business days ACH settlement takes. The practical answer is offering both and defaulting big domestic retainers to the bank rail.
Failed payments deserve equal attention. A retainer that silently fails on an expired card is revenue you’ve already staffed for. Look for automatic retries, card auto-updating, and dunning emails in whatever you pick, since recovering one $5,000 payment pays for a lot of tooling.
Agency Payment FAQs
What Is The Best Way For An Agency To Collect Monthly Retainers?
Recurring billing on a bank debit rail, where the client authorizes once and the charge runs monthly. In the US that means ACH, which several providers price near 1.5% with a fee cap, against 2.7% to 3.5% for cards. Keep cards as the fallback for international clients.
Should Agencies Charge Clients By Card Or Bank Transfer?
Both, chosen by invoice size and geography. Under roughly $500, card fees are tolerable and settlement is faster. Above that, ACH or local bank debit saves meaningful money, with fees capped at dollars instead of scaling by percentage. International clients usually need cards or local payment methods.
How Can An Agency Reduce Failed Retainer Payments?
Use a provider with automatic retries, saved card auto-updating, and dunning emails. Failed charges cluster around expired cards and monthly limits, and most recover on a retry a few days later. For high-value retainers, bank debits fail less often than cards in the first place.
What is Whop?
Whop is a business platform for taking payments and sending payouts. Agencies use it to bill retainers on recurring plans, invoice project work, accept 100+ payment methods, and pay out to contractors in 186+ countries. US card pricing is 2.7% plus $0.30, with ACH debits at 1.5% capped at $5.
Do Payment Fees Count As A Business Expense?
Yes. Processing fees are a deductible cost of doing business in most jurisdictions, which softens but doesn’t remove the difference between providers. A fee you deduct still costs you most of its face value, so the ACH-versus-card arithmetic stays worth doing.
