Why does Lightcast recommend to charge $4.99 or more for subscriptions?

The mere credit card processing and transaction costs for micro-payments are $0.90. With only $0.10 going towards charge-back costs, overheads and support, the minimum Lightcast EasyPay has to charge is $1.00. Therefore, if you charge $4.99/month or more for subscription charges, you are paying 20% in transaction and processing costs. If you lower the monthly subscription fee, the share which goes towards transaction and processing costs is incrementally higher. 

$4.99/month is the recommended minimum transaction amount if you wish to net 80% of the total subscription revenue, with only 20% going towards transaction, processing costs and subscriber management system. That said, lowering the subscription price may be more important to you than an optimized expense/revenue ratio, in which case the $1.00 would be the minimum amount withheld from your transactions to cover transaction, credit card costs, charge-back costs, support and subscriber management system.