Optimization of payment solutions
No Cure No Pay
Most retailers are paying more for payments than they need to. Not because their PSP is dishonest, but because PSPs are built to optimize their own revenue, not yours. Pricing tiers exist but are not proactively applied. Interchange reductions passed on by the card schemes are absorbed as margin rather than passed through to the merchant. Scheme fee markups are buried in blended invoices. Contracts are written to auto-renew at existing rates. None of this is accidental.
The result is a structural gap between what merchants pay and what they could pay, and it widens every year the contract goes unreviewed.
EcomStream closes that gap. Independently, without conflicts of interest, and without upfront cost. Every engagement is handled personally by Ramon Helwegen, with over 15 years in payments including 8 years on the PSP side.
Option A: Cut your PSP costs
A structured review of your current payment costs, benchmarked against current market rates, followed by a renegotiation with your existing PSP or a competitive tender. The focus is purely commercial: what you are paying, what you should be paying, and closing the gap.
PSPs do not proactively optimize your costs. When your volumes grow into a lower pricing tier, you will not receive an unsolicited rate adjustment. The commercial relationship only moves in your direction when you apply pressure, and applying that pressure requires knowing exactly what the market rate is and what your contract actually says.
Does any of this sound familiar?
We signed our PSP contract three years ago and have never renegotiated it, even though our volumes have doubled.
We have no idea whether the scheme fees on our invoice are being passed through at cost or marked up.
Our interchange costs feel high but we cannot tell whether our transaction mix is being classified correctly.
We are paying the same iDEAL rate we agreed at onboarding, despite now processing ten times the volume.
Our PSP told us our pricing is competitive. We have nothing to compare it against.
Option B: Run a payment RFP
The right option when your current payment setup no longer fits your business. Whether you have outgrown your PSP, are expanding into new markets, moving to unified commerce, or want independent assurance that you are with the right provider, EcomStream manages the full RFP process on your behalf.
Does any of this sound familiar?
We are expanding into Germany and France but our PSP’s local payment method coverage is poor and their pricing for those markets is unclear.
We are moving to unified commerce and need online and POS under one provider, but we do not know which providers can actually deliver both at the required level.
Our PSP has been acquired and the service has deteriorated, but we have no structured process for evaluating alternatives.
We are about to replatform and want to use the moment to run a proper PSP tender rather than just migrating the existing setup.
We think we are with the right PSP, but we want an independent view before we sign the renewal.
EcomStream manages the process from requirements definition through provider evaluation to contract negotiation. The RFP is built around your specific KPIs, not a generic template. Provider responses are evaluated on a consistent commercial and technical framework, and the negotiation is conducted with the full context of current market pricing.
Get more from your PSP
A focused engagement for retailers with a specific performance challenge. Authorization rates underperforming. SCA exemption strategies not properly configured. 3DS routing producing unnecessary declines. Fraud or chargeback ratios outside acceptable bounds. New payment methods or markets that need expert assessment before launch.
Does any of this sound familiar?
Our authorization rate dropped three percentage points after our PSP made a configuration change and we cannot get a clear explanation of why.
We know our SCA exemption rate is low but our PSP says everything is set up correctly. We are not convinced.
Our decline rate for German card transactions is significantly higher than for other markets and no one can tell us why.
We are seeing a spike in chargebacks from a specific customer segment and our current fraud tooling is not giving us enough visibility to act on it.
We want to launch in the UK and need an independent view on local payment methods, acquiring options, and the commercial structure before we commit.
Our board has asked for an independent assessment of our payment infrastructure ahead of a funding round.
EcomStream brings direct, senior expertise to these engagements without a prolonged onboarding process. The output is a clear diagnosis, a set of actionable recommendations, and where relevant, direct support in implementing them with the PSP.
Why independent advice matters
PSPs optimize for their own revenue. That is their business model and there is nothing wrong with it, but it means the advice they give on pricing, contract terms, and optimization is filtered through that lens. A PSP account manager who suggests a new feature or a contract renewal is not acting as your advisor. They are acting as a salesperson, which is their job.
The problem is that most merchants have no independent counterweight to that. No internal expert, no external advisor, no benchmark data. The PSP sets the agenda and the merchant follows it.
EcomStream has never worked for a PSP and never will. No referral relationships, no implementation fees, no commercial arrangements with providers. The advice is independent because the business model is independent.
That independence is the foundation of the no-cure-no-pay model. If the analysis does not identify material savings or improvements, there is no fee. The engagement only has value if it delivers value.
Client references
