What a Clover gift card program actually costs

The three cost buckets

Every quote you receive, from any provider, breaks into the same three line items. Price them separately and the comparisons get easy.

1. Card stock

Full-color plastic cards run $0.45–$0.85 each. The price moves with quantity, not with design: 50 cards sit at the top of that range, 500 cards land near $0.55, and 2,500 cards get to the bottom. Artwork setup, the digital proof, and revisions are $0 with Factor4, so a 50-card starter order is about $22–$43 total. This is a one-time cost per print run — you reorder when you run low, not on a schedule.

2. Monthly platform fee

$14.95 per month. That covers card issuance and activation, balance lookups at the terminal, reload, the reporting dashboard, and the Clover app itself. There is no per-location surcharge and no setup fee ($0). Annual platform cost: $179.40.

3. Per-transaction fees

$0.10 when a card is activated or loaded. Redemptions are $0 — you are not charged again when the customer spends the balance. Note what this is not: gift card redemption is not a credit card transaction, so your normal card-present processing rate (typically 2.3%–2.9% plus $0.10) does not apply when a gift card is swiped. Selling a $50 card costs you $0.10 in platform fees instead of roughly $1.25 in card processing.

Provider cost comparison

Same seven line items across four options. Figures are current published or quoted rates for a single-location merchant.

Read the bottom three rows first. Contract length, design cost, and migration cost are where a program that looks $5 cheaper per month ends up $550 more expensive in year one.

Fees that aren't on the pricing page

Four charges rarely appear in a published rate table. Each one is worth asking about in writing before you sign.

Dormancy / inactivity fees

A $1–$3 monthly deduction from a card balance after 12 months of no activity. It drains the customer's money, not yours, which is exactly why it turns into a counter argument two years later. Competitor A charges $2 per month after 12 months; Competitor B charges $1.50 after 18 months. Factor4 charges $0 and never touches a card balance. Several states — California, Connecticut, and Montana among them — restrict or prohibit these fees outright.

Reload fees

$0.25–$0.50 every time a customer adds value to an existing card. If reloading is part of your program — coffee shops and salons reload constantly — this quietly becomes your largest variable cost. A shop processing 200 reloads a month pays $50–$100 a month on this line alone. Factor4 charges the same $0.10 as an activation.

Monthly statement and reporting fees

$5–$10 per month for a paper statement, and on two platforms an extra $10–$15 for multi-location roll-up reporting. Annualized that is $60–$300 for data you already generated. Factor4 includes all reporting in the $14.95 platform fee.

Cancellation and data-export fees

On a 36-month contract, early termination is typically $250 or the remaining monthly fees, whichever is greater — cancel Competitor A in month 6 and you owe $748.50. Some providers also charge $100–$300 to export your own balance file, which is the one thing you need in order to leave. Factor4 is month to month, with no termination fee and no charge to export your balances.

• Dormancy fee: $1–$3 per month per inactive card (Factor4: $0)
• Reload fee: $0.25–$0.50 per reload (Factor4: $0.10)
• Statement / reporting fee: $5–$15 per month (Factor4: $0)
• Cancellation fee: $250+ or remaining term (Factor4: $0)
• Balance export fee: $100–$300 (Factor4: $0)

Break-even math

A single-location restaurant orders 500 custom cards at $0.55 each. Here is the full first-year arithmetic at an average load of $25 per card.

• Card stock: 500 × $0.55 = $275
• Artwork and setup: $0
• Platform fee: $14.95 × 12 = $179.40
• Activation fees, assuming all 500 cards sell: 500 × $0.10 = $50.00
• Total first-year cost: $504.40

Revenue side: 500 cards sold at $25 each is $12,500 collected up front. Break-even on the $275 of card stock plus the first month's $14.95 — $289.95 — arrives at 11 cards sold (11 × $25 = $275, with card 12 clearing it). Break-even on the full first-year cost of $504.40 is 21 cards. Everything after card 21 is margin against a $504.40 annual line item.

The second-order number matters more: industry data puts gift card overspend — the amount customers spend above the card value — at roughly 20% of the load, and 10%–15% of balances are never redeemed at all. On $12,500 of cards sold, that is $2,500 in incremental spend and $1,250–$1,875 in balances that stay on your books. Against $504.40 of cost.

Physical vs digital cost

The only structural cost difference is card stock. Digital cards have no print cost, no shipping, no minimum order, and no reorder cycle — a digital-only program costs $14.95 in month one versus $14.95 plus $22–$425 of plastic depending on print run. The platform fee and the $0.10 activation fee are identical either way.

Digital-only makes sense when:

• You sell mostly online and ship nothing — no counter, no rack, no card to hand over
• You want to test demand before committing to a print run of 500 cards
• Your peak is a two-week holiday window and shipping plastic in time is the risk
• You run promotions that need instant delivery, like a $10 credit for a survey

Physical cards still outsell digital at the counter for most merchants, because a rack by the register is the entire marketing budget. The practical answer is both: 500 printed cards for the counter and digital for the website, on one balance ledger and one $14.95 fee. Want your exact numbers? Call 484-471-3963.