Dental Credit Card Processing with Transparent, Trusted Merchant Services

At Dental Strategic, we help independent dental professionals streamline their payment systems with trusted merchant services for dental practices. Whether you’re just starting out or managing a mature practice, our platform offers a clear and competitive approach to dental credit card processing—no hidden fees, no surprises. With Interchange Plus pricing, you’ll always know exactly what you’re paying and why.

We’ve helped dental practices nationwide simplify how they get paid. Let’s do the same for yours. Book a consultation today and discover how simple and secure payment processing can be.

What Is Merchant Processing for Dental Offices?

Merchant processing refers to the systems and services that allow your dental practice to accept credit card, debit card, and digital wallet payments from patients. In today’s dental environment, these services are more than just a convenience—they’re essential to maintaining healthy cash flow and meeting patient expectations.

Common features include:

• In-office POS systems
• Secure online payments
• Recurring billing for payment plans or memberships
• Optional virtual terminals

At Dental Strategic, our dental credit card processing tools are designed to support the specific operational and financial needs of dental offices. We eliminate complexity and give you the tools to collect payments efficiently and professionally.

Are There HIPAA-Compliant Merchant Processing Solutions for Dentists?

Yes, and compliance is at the core of what we offer. Dental Strategic’s platform supports HIPAA-compliant merchant processing, ensuring that all patient financial transactions are secure and meet industry regulations.

We include PCI DSS compliance and $150,000 in breach protection for forensic audits, so your practice has built-in safeguards against risk. From encrypted card readers to secure data storage, our system protects both you and your patients.

Do Dental Practices Need a Point-of-Sale (POS) System?

A POS system isn’t mandatory, but it can make a big difference. A modern point-of-sale system streamlines patient checkouts, supports contactless payments, and speeds up the front desk workflow. It’s especially useful for busy practices that want to reduce wait times and enhance the in-office experience.

Having a reliable POS system in place ensures these criteria are met more consistently, which can help your practice avoid costly downgrades to Mid-Qualified or Non-Qualified tiers. In processor terminology, a “Qualified” transaction is one that meets all the necessary requirements and is batched on time, typically the same day. At Dental Strategic, we offer optional POS equipment at wholesale pricing, so you get the tech you need without overpaying for it.

Average Savings of +30% – Interchange Cost Plus

Through our exclusive partnership, dental practices average just a 1.95% effective rate in total card processing fees (excluding American Express). This includes all Visa, Mastercard, and Discover transactions processed through a transparent Interchange Cost Plus model.

Here’s how our pricing works:

• Visa/Mastercard/Discover: Interchange + 0.40% and $0.10 per item
• Amex OptBlue®: Pass-through + 0.40% and $0.10 per item
• PIN Debit: $0.10 per transaction
• Monthly Service Fee: $10.00
• PCI Compliance Protection: $8.00
• Optional Virtual Terminal: $10/month (setup fee waived)

There are no application fees, no monthly minimums, and no annual fees. Just simple, competitive, and honest pricing.

How Can a Dentist Lower Their Credit Card Processing Fees?

Most dental offices are unknowingly overpaying for credit card processing, often due to opaque pricing models that disguise excessive markups. Flat-rate and tiered pricing systems are particularly problematic, as they bundle costs into generalized categories that mask the actual interchange fees and create incentives for processors to inflate their rates.

The Problem with Tiered Pricing

Most processors use a tiered risk-based pricing model, which charges different rates based on how a transaction is classified:

• Qualified (Card Present or “Low Risk”) – 1.60%
• Mid-Qualified – 2.75%
• Non-Qualified – 3.4%
• High Risk – 4.5%

This structure gives processors a financial incentive to “downgrade” your transactions to a more expensive category, increasing their profit margins at your expense. While Visa, Mastercard, and Discover typically have similar rates, American Express (Amex) follows its own structure.

A Better Solution: Interchange Plus Pricing

At Dental Strategic, we offer Interchange Plus (IC+) pricing, which removes the guesswork and levels the playing field:

• No hidden markups or incentives to downgrade transactions
• Same margin across all transaction types—whether Qualified, Mid-Qualified, or High Risk
• Transparent, line-item reporting that shows you exactly where your fees go

Here’s how our IC+ pricing model looks in practice:

• Qualified – Interchange rate + 0.40%
• Mid-Qualified – Interchange rate + 0.40%
• Non-Qualified – Interchange rate + 0.40%
• High Risk – Interchange rate + 0.40%

Because our margin stays consistent, there’s no financial gain in pushing your transactions into a higher-risk category, unlike with traditional tiered pricing.

You can verify the current interchange rates for Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and Amex by visiting their official websites. These rates are typically updated every six months.

The Bottom Line

If you’re serious about reducing your dental practice’s payment processing costs, switching to a transparent and ethical merchant service provider is one of the simplest and most effective moves you can make. With Dental Strategic, you’ll stop overpaying and start seeing exactly where your money goes, every time.

Why Work with Dental Strategic for Merchant Processing?

We’ve built our service around what matters most to dentists: simplicity, savings, and support. Here’s what sets Dental Strategic apart:

• Interchange Cost Plus pricing for maximum transparency
• No hidden fees, no application fees, and no minimums
• True next-day funding (11 PM EST cutoff)
• Free access to statements, support, and debit networks
• Wholesale equipment pricing

Dedicated support from an expert team that understands dentistry