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Pricing models · Glossary

Interchange

Also called: interchange fee, interchange rate

Interchange is the wholesale fee paid by a merchant's acquiring bank to the cardholder's issuing bank on every card transaction. Set by Visa and Mastercard and revised semiannually, interchange is the largest component of the effective rate and is not negotiable.

Example

A U.S. credit transaction on a Visa Signature card carries roughly 2.10% + $0.10 in interchange.

Why this matters to merchants

Interchangesits inside the broader system of U.S. payment processing economics that determine a merchant’s effective rate. Most operators encounter this term on their merchant statement without understanding what it controls, which is how the four hidden fees covered by our methodology slip past unnoticed.

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