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Interchange? Card Brand Fees? What are these and what can they mean for my business?

Updated: Oct 11, 2022

If you have been processing payments via merchant services, you may have some questions as to what each associated fees are. Below we have listed the set of fees that are most commonly asked about and we have provided some additional insight into them. We are here to help demystify this otherwise confusing/dull information in hopes to help with understanding these fees further.

In this section

  • Interchange Fees

  • Card Brand Fees


Interchange Fees

"Interchange Fees" are the fees a merchant pays for debit and credit card transactions. These fees are determined by the card issuing companies based on the risk level or handling charges of each transaction. As an example of how this is calculated can be seen as such:

  • Visa Debit swiped will have a different (in most cases lower) rate than Visa Credit swiped

  • MC Debit swiped will have a different (in most cases lower) rate than MC Credit swiped

  • Additionally, Visa Debit swiped will have a different rate than MC Debit swiped.

Another factor to take into consideration is "Swiped vs. Keyed. Since "Keyed" transactions have a higher risk value, they have higher associated fees than "Swiped".


Card Brand Fees

Unlike interchange fees which are charged by the card issuing companies (Banks, Credit Unions, etc.), the Card Brand Fees are charged by the card associations i.e. Visa, Mastercard, AMEX, etc.


Here are some examples of Card Brand Fees you may see for Visa and Mastercard on your processing statements.

VISA

Fee Type

Statement Description

Description

Visa Assessment

VS-ASSMNT CREDIT VS-ASSMNT DEBIT

Fee applied by Visa to your gross monthly volume for Visa Credit and Visa Debit.

Visa Acquirer Processing Fee

VS-NAPF-Credit

VS-NAPF-Debit

Fee for each transaction involving all US based credit cards and non PIN debit cards

Visa Fixed Acquirer Network Fee

VS-VS FANF CP

Fixed rate based on your monthly volume

Visa Misuse of Authorization

VS-Misuse of Auth

Applied to all Visa approved or partially approved transactions that can not be linked to a specific settled sale within a certain time frame.

Visa System File Transmission Fee

VS-VS TRANSMFEE

System file transmission fee for every transaction settled


Mastercard


Fee Type

Statement Description

Description

MC Assessment Fees

MC-ACQ Brand Volume

Fee based on your gross monthly volume and applied to your total volume

MC Acquirer Program Support Fee

MC-ACQ Prgm Support

Applied to international transactions settled by a US merchant

MC Cross Border Fee (Domestic)

MC-CRBDR - Domestic

Applied to all Non US credit or debit cards transactions settled in USD

MC Location Fee

​MC-MC Location Fee

Fixed fee for excepting a MC debit or credit card

MC Network Access Brand Usage

MC-NABU Auth

Applied to all MC authorization requests per transaction


Conclusion


Processing transactions and the associated fees that are attached to those services can be daunting. We hope that with this information, we can equip you/your business with the knowledge and tools to better understand your processing fees.


Now, continuing being successful at your craft and please, always feel free to reach out to us at info@southpacificunion.com for feedback or questions, we are here for you!


Have any questions regarding Chargebacks? check out this article for more information

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