Credit card processing in San Jose, CA
San Jose is the largest city in Silicon Valley, and many of its customers pay with phones and watches. At the same time, much of its small-business economy is family-run restaurants, bakeries and shops serving Vietnamese, Mexican and Filipino communities.
San Jose business, from Downtown San Jose to Santana Row
Downtown and Santana Row serve tech workers and shoppers with high average tickets, and corporate campuses create demand for catering and services. East San Jose has many family restaurants, markets and salons.
Little Saigon along Story Road is a major Vietnamese business district, where pho restaurants, jewellers and bakeries handle many small tickets.
Business districts: Downtown San Jose · Santana Row · Japantown · Little Saigon (Story Road) · Willow Glen · North San Jose
Commercial corridors: Santana Row · South First Street · The Alameda · Stevens Creek Boulevard · Lincoln Avenue
Card fees and the law in San Jose
San Jose businesses follow California rules: the Attorney General generally applies Italian Colors, which limits the old surcharge ban, and SB 478 requires unavoidable fees to be in the advertised price. Never advertise a price lower than customers actually pay.
Full state rules and sources · not legal advice
Which pricing suits Santana Row retailers?
Tech-area restaurants with high tickets and premium cards should use interchange-plus to see what those cards cost. Family bakeries and pho shops with small tickets need low per-transaction fees. Catering companies serving corporate campuses should send Level 2 data.
POS for Little Saigon restaurants and jewellers, corporate caterers and more
- Santana Row retailers
- Contactless and wallet checkout, online inventory sync, set up around how Santana Row retailers in San Jose sell.
- Little Saigon restaurants and jewellers
- Fast payment, small-ticket pricing and high-ticket limits for jewellery.
- Corporate caterers
- Invoicing with Level 2 data and deposits, set up around how corporate caterers in San Jose sell.
Send one statement. Every fee named, back, usually within 4 hours.
It is free, there is nothing to sign and nothing to cancel. We read your current merchant statement line by line, name every fee on it — including the ones buried in the fee schedule — work out your true effective rate, and send the written analysis back, usually within 4 hours. Do not want to wait? Call 1-888-705-7896 and we will read your statement with you on the call in about 5 minutes.
Before you call: San Jose answers
Under SB 478, a fee every customer must pay belongs in the advertised price; the AG also generally applies Italian Colors to surcharges. For Santana Row retailers: Check current rules and take advice.
A wallet payment is priced like the card behind it; it is a secure card-present transaction.
Look at the per-transaction fee and remove monthly junk fees.
Yes. We work with merchants in Japantown, Little Saigon (Story Road), Willow Glen and every other part of San Jose. For Santana Row retailers: Setup is remote from start to finish, including programming the hardware before it ships.