AFSA Webinar | The Real Cost of Getting Paid: Why Transaction Fees Tell Only Part of the Cost of Payment Acceptance

August 20, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET

Consumer lenders closely monitor the cost of accepting payments, often focusing on transaction fees and processor invoices. But what if those costs represent only a small fraction of what it actually takes to get paid?

New research from PayNearMe introducing the Payment Experience Gap found that transaction fees account for less than 20% of the total cost of payment acceptance. The remaining costs are created across the payment journey—from abandoned payment attempts and customer support interactions to payment failures, operational exceptions and early-stage recovery.

For lenders, these hidden costs directly impact servicing expenses, cash flow, operational efficiency and the borrower experience, yet they rarely appear together in financial reporting.

This webinar presents first-of-its-kind research quantifying the total cost of payment acceptance and explores why improving the payment experience—not simply lowering transaction fees—may be one of the biggest opportunities to reduce costs, accelerate payments and improve business performance.

Attendees will learn:

Why transaction fees capture only a fraction of the total cost of getting paid
Where payment costs can become buried across servicing, support and operations
How payment friction impacts borrower experience, cash flow and operational efficiency
A practical framework for evaluating and improving payment performance across the entire payment journey

Speaker:
Elizabeth Powell, Senior Director, Brand & Communications, PayNearMe
Steve Kramer, Vice President, Product, PayNearMe

Presented by

August 3rd, 2026