Interchange-Plus Pricing: What It Is, Good Rates and Tiered Compared

Start with interchange. Interchange is a fee set by the card network (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) and paid to the bank that issued your customer's card. Visa puts it plainly in its own rate guide: "Merchants do not pay interchange reimbursement fees; merchants pay 'merchant discount' to their financial institution." In other words, you pay your merchant account provider one bill, and interchange is buried somewhere inside it.

Interchange-plus (also called cost-plus or pass-through pricing) digs it back out. Your statement shows the actual interchange on each card type, the card network fees, and the provider's markup as a separate, fixed amount.

Interchange isn't one number. It depends on the card (basic, rewards, premium, business, debit), whether the card was present, and your type of business. Here are Visa's U.S. consumer credit rates from the schedule effective April 18, 2026:

Source: Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, rates effective April 18, 2026 (checked September 28, 2026). Many industries have their own Visa rates. Visa usually updates the schedule in April and October.

Online sales cost more than in-person sales on the same card. A sale that doesn't meet Visa's data and timing requirements falls to the non-qualified rate of 3.15% + $0.10. On interchange-plus, you can see when that happens and fix the cause. Visa also takes 0.05% to 0.15% off card-not-present interchange for tokenized or authenticated online payments that qualify.

One more note: Visa retired the old "CPS/Retail" and "CPS/Card Not Present" labels for consumer credit in April 2026. A rate sheet that still uses them is out of date.

Tiered pricing sorts every sale into two or three buckets, usually called qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified, each with its own bundled rate. The provider decides which card goes in which bucket. Flat-rate pricing charges one rate for everything. Both hide interchange, so you can't tell how much of your bill is markup.

Here's the same month under both models. The business sells online, processes $50,000 a month in 500 sales of $100, all Visa consumer credit: 40% basic cards, 35% rewards cards, 25% Visa Signature.

Interchange rates are Visa's card-not-present consumer credit rates effective April 18, 2026. The 0.14% assessment is from one large acquirer's published pass-through schedule (April 2026); other small network fees are left out of both columns. The markup and the whole tiered quote are made up for illustration. They are not START's prices or any provider's quote.

In this example the tiered quote costs $338.75 more a month, about $4,065 a year. The exact gap depends on the quote. The real lesson is that the tiered statement gives you no way to check it. You'd never see that the "qualified" rate in the sales pitch applied to none of your sales.

You can't negotiate interchange or network fees. Every provider pays the same ones. So a "good interchange plus rate" really means a good markup, plus fair monthly fees.

Judge a quote on three parts together:

• Percentage markup on sales volume, e.g. 0.25%.
• Per-transaction markup, e.g. $0.10 per sale.
• Fixed fees: monthly, statement, gateway, PCI and any minimums.

A low percentage with a high per-transaction fee can cost more than it looks, especially if your average sale is small. On a $20 sale, a $0.25 per-transaction markup is 1.25% on its own.

The best single check is your effective rate: total fees for the month divided by total sales. Work it out from two or three statements, and compare quotes on your real volume and average sale. Our high-risk rates guide shows how to calculate your effective rate from a statement, along with how reserves work.

Interchange plus plus, or IC++, lists the card network fees as their own "plus" instead of rolling them into interchange or the markup. The name is more common in Europe. In the U.S., a good interchange-plus statement usually itemizes these fees anyway.

The network fees are small but they add up. For example, one large acquirer's published pass-through schedule (April 2026) lists these assessments:

You'll also see smaller per-item fees, such as Visa's acquirer processing fee and Mastercard's network access and brand usage fee, plus Visa's fixed acquirer network fee, which is monthly and varies by business. Your own provider's schedule may differ, so ask for it.

What matters is that each network fee on your statement matches a published fee, at cost. A line called "network fee" or "card brand fee" with no match on the schedule is markup under another name. For how IC++ works on an enterprise gateway contract, see our guide to Cybersource pricing and fees.

When people compare merchant services rates, they often compare the wrong number. A quote of "2.5%" might be a flat rate, the lowest tier of a tiered plan, or interchange plus a markup. Only the last one tells you what the provider earns.

A fair interchange-plus markup has these traits:

• The same on every card type. If the markup on rewards cards is higher than on basic cards, that's closer to tiered pricing than true interchange-plus.
• Written into the contract, with the percentage and per-transaction parts both stated.
• Visible on the statement as its own line, separate from interchange and network fees.
• Fixed, or with clear notice before any change.
• Matched to your risk. Businesses in higher-risk industries usually pay more markup and may have a reserve. Our merchant accounts guide covers what shapes pricing and approval.

Look past the headline rate. These are the merchant account fees that most often inflate a statement:

If you're already locked into some of these, our guide to switching merchant services covers how to move without paying twice.

Debit cards are where interchange-plus pays off most. The Durbin Amendment caps interchange on debit cards from large banks (those with $10 billion or more in assets). The Federal Reserve sets that cap in Regulation II.

• Regulated debit: Visa's rate is 0.05% + $0.21, plus $0.01 when the issuer meets the fraud-prevention standard. On a $100 sale, that's about $0.27.
• Exempt debit (smaller banks and credit unions) isn't capped. Visa's rates include 0.80% + $0.15 card-present and 1.65% + $0.15 card-not-present: $1.80 on a $100 online sale.

On tiered or flat pricing, a regulated debit sale is often charged like any other card. On interchange-plus, you pay the lower rate plus your markup.

Pending change: in October 2023 the Federal Reserve proposed lowering the Regulation II cap. As of September 2026, no final rule has been issued, so the current cap still applies.

Here's where things stand as of September 28, 2026.

• Visa and Mastercard reached an amended class-action settlement with merchants, valued at about $38 billion, in November 2025.
• A federal judge in New York gave it preliminary approval on June 9, 2026. It is not final. Walmart, the National Association of Convenience Stores and other merchants have objected, and a court filing responding to them is due October 14, 2026.
• If it's approved, the terms Visa has disclosed include a 0.10-percentage-point cut to average credit interchange for five years, a 1.25% cap on standard consumer credit cards, more freedom to surcharge credit cards up to 3%, and the right to decline some card categories. The changes would start within 90 days of final approval.

Nothing changes on your statement until then. When it does, interchange-plus passes lower interchange straight to you. Bundled rates don't have to. If you're thinking about surcharging, read the current rules in our credit card surcharge guide first; they apply to any business, not just firearm dealers.

START Merchant Services is a registered MSP/ISO of Elavon and has worked with Authorize.Net for more than 20 years. We price merchant accounts on interchange-plus, so you can check every line of your statement against the card networks' published rates.

• No termination fees, no annual fees and no AVS fees.
• Lower Durbin debit fees passed through to you.
• Merchants save 20% on processing costs on average.
• Most merchants are approved in 1–5 business days.

Selling online? Our ecommerce merchant account guide covers the gateway side. Running a smaller shop? See merchant services for small business.

The fastest way to see what you'd pay is a free statement review. Send us your latest statement, and we'll show you your effective rate, your current markup, and what the same volume would cost on interchange-plus.