Industry Rates & Fees and Interchange Plus Pricing

Simply put, there are two basic industry rates & fees that collectively make up the vast majority of the cost of a Texas merchant account (approximately 82% on average), and are referred to as “Interchange.” They are charged by bank card networks like Visa® and MasterCard® every time a merchant accepts one of their cards for purchases.

The industry rates & fees mentioned above are the interchange fees (amount that is paid to the card issuer), and dues & assessments (paid to the card associations; i.e. Visa, Mastercard, etc.).

The most important thing to note about Interchange and Assessments is that they are NON-NEGOTIABLE, regardless if you open a Texas merchant account with us, or another processor. These industry rates & fees are set by Visa, MasterCard, etc., and the Issuing Banks (the bank that issued the card to the customer), and are the same for every business no matter what processor/merchant account provider they choose to use.

Industry Rates & Fees: Interchange

Rate is a percentage of the volume for each credit card transaction.

Industry rates & fees are composed of a flat rate for each transaction plus a percentage of the transaction amount. Example: $0.10/per transaction +1.75% of transaction volume; Interchange is the largest chunk of your processing cost.

When you open a Texas merchant account, we educate you on the industry rates & fees and the pricing systems. However, Interchange pricing can be complex and difficult to fully grasp because each card and transaction type has a unique cost, creating an assortment of over 150 Interchange rate categories. These industry rates & fees will be the same for all processors and are determined based on four key items:

Brand and type of card the customer uses
Type of business you run
Type of transaction that was made
Information collected for verifications

Industry Rates & Fees: Assessment

Fee is a flat transaction cost added to each transaction

Industry rates & fees are set by Visa and MasterCard and charged for using their networks (Visa & Mastercard: 0.11%). Mastercard has an additional assessment called Network and Brand Usage Fee (NABU) which is 0.0185% per transaction. Visa has an additional assessment fee which is called Acquirer Processing Fee (APF) which is 0.0195% per transaction. Assessments are industry rates & fees and are non-negotiable.

Processor Costs

The fees that we charge for our services for a Texas merchant account.

They are the only part of the cost which varies by provider. It’s also the only part of the entire processing cost makeup that is negotiable for most businesses. We are committed to educating our merchants on the industry rates & fees so they can be empowered to make the right decision for their business needs.