by Matt Rej
If you’re using LMN software and you got an email or a call from a Granum sales rep about moving your payments to Stripe, you need to read this first.
LMN Pay was rebuilt in March 2026, and it now runs on Stripe for payment processing.
New LMN customers don’t have a choice here if they want integrated processing. Stripe is the only option. But existing merchants on the old setup still have a say in the matter (at least for now).
The most important detail of this new setup is that Stripe accounts through LMN Pay are NOT Stripe accounts you control. LMN Pay sits in the middle and facilitates the account, making everything much more expensive.
What Changed With LMN Pay in March 2026
LMN Pay didn’t used to be a Stripe product at all. Businesses that wanted integrated payments had two options:
- Fiserv: Through Clover Connect (previously CardConnect). You’d have your own Fiserv merchant ID, CardPointe portal, and a direct line to the processor.
- Payrix: Accessed through an LMN Pay portal with support handled by Granum (Payrix is now part of Worldpay for Platforms, which is owned by Global Payments).
Both of these options are now closed to new enrollments.
Are Legacy LMN Pay Accounts Being Forced to Switch?
Not yet. If you currently fall into one of these setups, you can keep everything exactly the same. But that may not be the case forever.
Granum’s help documents associated with LMN Pay contain a banner announcement about the move to Stripe. But here’s the line that matters:
“If you are currently with Fiserv or Payrix you will not be required to switch to Stripe as a merchant provider at this time.”
I’ve been doing this long enough to know what “at this time: means. New onboarding is already shut off, which is step one. From here, it’s likely support will downgrade or a migration deadline will show up. Though that could be at least another year or two out.
We’ve also seen scenarios with legacy payments from other software platforms that don’t necessarily “force” you to switch, but they add another 1% fee or something like that to make it too expensive for you to stay put.
So the clock is probably running. But that doesn’t mean you should try to get ahead of it.
If you’re using Fiserv or Payrix with LMN Pay right now, the short answer is that you should keep everything the same. Don’t migrate to the new setup with Stripe just because you’re being pitched.
This is especially important if you’re getting competitive interchange-plus rates. Moving now likely means you’re getting published rates with no leverage.
Under LMN Pay’s New Setup, You Don’t Control the Stripe Account
LMN Pay is built on Stripe Connect.
LMN/Granum provides the software, and they also control your merchant account under this setup.
So the fact that the payment platform is powered by Stripe is largely irrelevant. Since you have no direct access to them.
LMN’s help center is pretty blunt about this. If you already have a Stripe account, you have to apply for a brand new one inside LMN, and your new account won’t be accessible through any external Stripe Dashboard or the Stripe app. Every transaction and payout record lives inside LMN.
So all the things you’d normally do with Stripe are off the table.
- You can’t connect an existing Stripe account using your own API keys.
- You can’t negotiate your rates directly with Stripe.
- You can’t take the account with you if you leave LMN.
You essentially have a Stripe account in name only.
Granum owns the relationship, sets the price, and handles the support.
What LMN Pay Costs Now
Granum’s product page says LMN Pay charges a “transparent processing fee per transaction — no monthly minimums, no hidden costs” and then tells you the exact rates are available once you connect your account or speak to your team.
But the rates are actually published. They’re just buried in the help center instead of on the pricing page:
- 2.99% + $0.30 per transaction for credit and debit cards
- 1% for ACH transfers (no cap)
- 3.09% + $0.35 for faster funding
This is 9 basis points higher than if you were to have a direct account with Stripe.
Not a huge deal. But that’s not the headline you should be focused on.
The ACH Markup is Where This Gets Expensive
ACH transfers should be much cheaper than card transactions because they carry less risk and the actual processing costs are next to nothing.
For percentage-based ACH transfers, we often see them around 0.20%. Other providers have flat-dollar amounts. And on the high end, embedded processing in a software is up to 0.80% per transaction (still way too high, but under 1%).
But the biggest difference here is that it’s 1% uncapped. Whereas if you had a Stripe direct account, it’s 0.80% capped at $5.
On a $600 residential invoice paid by bank transfer, the difference is a dollar. Nobody is losing sleep over that.
But on a commercial landscaping job, it’s a completely different number.
- $2,500 invoice = $25 ACH transfer fee via LMN Pay
- $8,000 invoice = $80 ACH transfer fee via LMN Pay
- $25,000 invoice = $250 ACH transfer fee via LMN Pay
Those would all be $5 if you actually had a real Stripe account.
If you run $500,000 per year in ACH across a hundred commercial payments, you’re paying roughly $5,000 instead of $500.
And the entire reason to steer customers toward bank transfer is that ACH is supposed to be the cheaper rail. While this is cheaper than 2.99% + $0.30 for card payments, it’s stiill expensive.
It’s also worth noting that merchants using SingleOps (another Granum software) to process ACH through ProPay also pay 1% for ACH too. Different Granum products, different processors, but the same number. I broke down that setup here.
Getting Stripe’s Published Rates Shouldn’t Be Your Goal Either
I’ve been comparing LMN Pay to Stripe directly because it’s the cleanest way to isolate what the middleman costs you. But nobody should read this and conclude that 2.9% + $0.30 is the number to chase.
Flat-rate pricing is a bad deal all around. It’s a bad deal at 3.50% with ProPay, a bad deal at 2.99% with LMN Pay, and it’s still a bad deal at 2.9% with Stripe.
Here’s why.
Under flat-rate pricing, you pay the same percentage no matter what card gets run. While the processor pays the actual interchange (wholesale rate) to the issuing bank and keeps the difference.
Say you’re sending a $500 invoice that gets paid with a regulated debit card. Interchange on that transaction is capped at 0.05% + $0.22, so about $0.47 in interchange. Add network fees and the wholesale cost is still less than $1.
LMN Pay charges you $15.25 on that transaction. Stripe directly would be $14.80.
The difference between those numbers is trivial. But the gap between either of them and ~$1.00 is the problem with flat-rate structures.
Interchange-plus pricing is what you want. You pay the wholesale costs, and a transparent markup to the processor that’s negotiable. This can save you thousands every month, and it’s worth pushing for regardless of who your processor is. Every processor has access to this (even if it’s not advertised), so you don’t need to switch anything to get it.
If LMN Pay is using Stripe on the backend to power payments, Stripe 100% offers IC+ and I know this because I see it on merchant statements.
Other Things You Should Know About The New LMN Pay Setup With Stripe
Faster Funding Costs More: Stripe typically offers next-day settlement as an available option on its own accounts. But if you want next-day funding via LMN Pay, your rate goes up to 3.09% + $0.35 per transaction.
Be Careful With the “Fee Flexibility” Toggle: Granum markets this as a way to add a processing fee to any invoice so your margin stays in-tact (by passing it to the consumer). You check a box, type in whatever percentage you want, and hit save. But this is a compliance problem waiting to happen. And you’re on the hook for any potential fallout here (not LMN or Granum).
No Partial Refunds: This is another instance where LMN Pay’s policies vary from Stripe, even though Stripe is powering everything behind the scenes. With LMN Pay, you can’t offer partial refunds (whereas Stripe direct allows this). You’d need to refund the entire difference, then submit another invoice with whatever price you wanted to adjust. This means you could spend hundreds on extra processing fees to refund and then reprocess an invoice.
Stripe Isn’t Perfect Either: Stripe is notorious for processing holds, account freezes, rolling reserves, and other issues that can impact your cash flow. Those same issues will inevitably pass through to LMN Pay, as Stripe is still the one underwriting the risk on the backend.
So, Should You Migrate?
For legacy Fiserv or Payrix users: No, at least not voluntarily. Don’t succumb to LMN Pay’s marketing materials or sales pitches on the new payment product with Stripe. They’re only pushing it so hard because it’s so profitable for them (at your expense). If your effective rate is too high, fix that by negotiating better rates with your existing legacy setup.
If you’re new to LMN with no processor yet: LMN Pay is a reasonable place to start. There’s no monthly fee, the setup is quick, and it gets you paid. So if you were going to get a small business flat-rate account from another provider, the few extra basis points for an integrated setup is fine. But I wouldn’t keep it forever at meaningful card volume. And the ACH rate just isn’t competitive.
Businesses that already have a merchant account elsewhere: Don’t change things just to get integrated payments. It’s not worth it. Instead, use the integration as leverage with your current processor. Since they can’t natively connect to LMN, it’s a legitimate reason for them to make pricing concessions on your account to keep the relationship.
Questions to Put in Writing to LMN/Granum
Their public documentation doesn’t answer any of these. So you can put pressure on them early by forcing them to show their hands:
- Is there a sunset date for legacy LMN Pay merchants using Fiserv or Payrix?
- If so, how much notice will we get?
- Is interchange-plus pricing available at any volume threshold?
- Are there reserves, holds, or monthly volume limits on the new LMN Pay accounts?
- What happens to our current merchant account contract with Fiserv/Payrix if you force us to switch? Are you going to pay the termination fees and/or liquidated damages?
Get these in writing before you commit to real volume.
And if you’re really not sure what to do, it’s worth getting a second opinion from a payments expert. Contact our team here at MCC, and we’ll go over the best options for your specific account.
Our goal is to always help you save the most money on credit card processing without changing providers.