I'm as anti gov't reg as anyone and strongly opposed to unnecessary, even job killing, gov't meddling, but PCI is a bit different as I understand it. Most of the PCI involves common sense things we should be doing anyway like being sure entire card numbers are not displayed on receipts or physically stored without proper security. CC fraud is very real and even though PCI won't stop all of it, I wouldn't be so quick to call it pointless regulation.
As for the OP, I doubt free is going to happen since PCI compliance does add expense for the provider. Depending on whether or not your business model makes PayPal a viable solution, they do include PCI compliance at no extra charge. As you might expect, this isn't free either because the rates are higher than the average merchant account. However, the overall fees might be lower depending on how you use it. You'll need to evaluate your transaction patterns to determine whether your costs will be higher, lower, or about the same.
Since you mentioned volume requirements, PP might work for you. There aren't any. If you do reach higher volume levels, they reduce the percentage rate per transaction. It won't take hours to figure out either because you just choose the plan best suited for your business and the monthly fees are plainly established. Your cost will be that fee plus the per transaction percentage based on your volume. That's it, no hidden extras. Yeah that comes all too close to sounding like a commercial, but I'm just confirming it isn't as convoluted as a lot of merchant agreements are known for.
