Get the Rundown on Mastercard Interchange Rates for 2022
Like any card network, Mastercard charges an interchange fee for merchants that accept Mastercard credit and debit card payments. For their part, Mastercard attempts to be very clear and straightforward about these charges.
In order to understand how Mastercard interchange rates might affect your business, it’s important to cover the basics first.
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Interchange: at a Glance
An interchange fee is a fee assessed by card networks and paid by merchants who accept credit card or debit card payments. This per-transaction fee covers the costs associated with processing payment card transactions using the card network’s payment infrastructure.
The responsibility for covering these costs will fall mainly to you, the merchant. The interchange reimbursement fee, commonly referred to as simply the interchange fee, is one of the most significant of these.
For every card transaction, you typically remit 1-3% of the purchase price to the bank that issued the card. How those percentages break down depends on several factors, such as industry, merchant status, and location.
General Interchange Pricing
Card processing rates represent a spectrum of pricing models that are applicable to a variety of businesses.
You may be able to choose from a wide variety of service providers. Or, depending on industry and vertical, you may be relegated to payment processors specializing in high-risk accounts, with limited fee scaling. Despite this possibility, typical processing rate plans include interchange fees as follows:
| Pricing Scale | Interchange Fees | Approach | Best For |
| Interchange-Plus | Separate from markup | Pass-through | General business |
| Subscription | Separate from markup | Pass-through | High volume business |
| Tiered | Blended with markup | Blended | *Inadvisable |
| Flat-Rate | Blended with markup | Blended | Low volume business |
For more general information about interchange fees, check out our main article on the topic.
Learn more about interchange rates
Mastercard Interchange Rates
According to the card network, Mastercard’s interchange rates apply to all US-based merchant transactions. However, there are separate interchange rates that apply to transactions conducted on a US-issued card at a US-based merchant, and interregional interchange rates. There could be a different fee schedule for interchange rates applied to transactions conducted on a non US-issued card.
Additionally, you won't pay interchange reimbursement fees directly. Instead, you'll typically negotiate and pay a rate to your acquirer that is calculated as a percentage per transaction (called the “merchant discount”). You merchant discount rate will be partially determined by Mastercard interchange rates, though.
You can view the full Mastercard interchange fee schedule here. However, we’ve drawn up a simplified version below of Mastercard interchange rates for US-based merchants.
Mastercard Debit & Credit Interchange Rates (US Merchants):
| Card-Type | Interchange Rate |
| Debit Card-Present | |
| MC Debit | 0.050 % + 22¢ |
| MC Debit Regulated | 1.150 % + 15¢ |
| Debit Keyed | |
| MC Debit Keyed | 1.650 % + 15¢ |
| MC Debit Keyed Regulated | 0.050 % + 22¢ |
| MC Debit Keyed Prepaid | 1.760 % + 20¢ |
| Credit Card-Present | |
| MC Consumer | 1.650 % + 10¢ |
| MC Enhanced | 1.800 % + 10¢ |
| MC World | 1.900 % + 10¢ |
| MC World Elite | 2.300 % + 10¢ |
| MC Corporate | 2.700 % + 10¢ |
| Credit Keyed | |
| MC Keyed Consumer | 1.950 % + 10¢ |
| MC Keyed Enhanced | 2.100 % + 10¢ |
| MC Keyed World | 2.200 % + 10¢ |
| MC Keyed World Elite | 2.600 % + 10¢ |
| MC Keyed Corporate | 2.700 % + 10¢ |
| Charities | |
| MC Charity Debit (non-regulated) | 1.450 % + 15¢ |
| MC Charity Credit | 2.000 % + 10¢ |
| International | |
| MC International | 1.100 % |
| MC International Keyed | 1.600 % |
Other Mastercard Assessments & Association Fees:
| Assessments and Association Fees | |
| MC Card-Brand (Under $1,000) | 0.1300% |
| MC Card-Brand (Over $1,000) | 0.1400% |
| MC ALF (Acquirer License Fee) | 0.0047% |
| MC NABU (Network Brand Usage Fee) | $0.0195 |
| MC Account Status Inquiry (on $0 auth) | $0.0250 |
| MC CVC 2 Authorization Fee | $0.0025 |
| MC AVS Authorization Fee | $0.0100 |
| MC Intl Cross-Border Support | 0.6000% |
| MC International Cross-Border | 0.8500% |
| MC - Per Location Annual Fee | $1.25/month |
Mastercard interchange rates are typically updated semiannually, and their website is updated to accommodate any updates to said interchange rates.
Have additional questions about interchange fees? We’ve got answers.
Mastercard Interchange Rates are Subject to Change
Due to the pandemic, Visa and Mastercard delayed any updates to their interchange rates for 2 years. As a result, in April 2022, the networks’ most recent updates saw some significant changes. This included general increases to interchange rates for card-not-present transactions.
To summarize current interchange fee schedule changes from Visa and Mastercard:
- Some rates for card-present transactions have decreased in price.
- eCommerce rates for transactions without tokenization have increased significantly.
- eCommerce rates for transactions with tokenization have decreased or remained the same.
