Credit card processing fees are an inevitable part of accepting credit cards for your business. During a credit card transaction, there are multiple parties involved in the process. The three major types of fees: transactional fees, monthly fees, and additional fees depending on the situation.
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There are two fixed fees that occur every time a transaction is made, and these are the interchange rate and the assessment fee.
The interchange rate is usually calculated as a percentage of the total sale amount and is anywhere between 1.7% and 3.5% per transaction. It is dependent on the amount of risk that card companies take on and can change at different times of the year.
The assessment fee is an additional markup charged by the payment processor, on top of the interchange rate. This will also be fixed no matter what payment processor you choose. It is typically no greater than $0.25 per transaction.
Lastly, the payment processor markup is an additional fee and can be negotiable. However, fees can vary greatly depending on your industry, sales volume, and whether the credit card is present during the transaction.
In addition to a per-transaction fee, payment processors also charge businesses monthly or yearly to use their services. This is usually a flat-rate figure that depends on your minimum number of transitions per month, whether you’re renting mobile credit card terminals, moving funds around, and whether you’re using a payment gateway provider for your e-commerce store.
On some occasions, you might need to pay additional fees on top of these other fees. Most commonly, you can be charged a fee in the event of a chargeback, a payment is disputed, or if you have insufficient funds in your account and can’t pay your payment processor.
At the end of the day, finding an affordable credit card processor can be a challenge. To help you keep your costs down, we’ve compared the best credit card processors for every business.
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What Are Typical Credit Card Processing Fees | Processing Card
Common credit card processing fees include interchange fees, assessment fees, and service fees that vary depending on your merchant provider. Learn more today.
Florence Carpenter is passionate about ensuring that the process of opening merchant accounts is as straightforward as possible. She graduated from the University of Michigan with a bachelor’s degree in Marketing.
