Visa Interchange FeesProcessing Rates & Fees, According to Visa

Get the Rundown on Visa Interchange Rates for 2022

Like any card network, Visa charges an interchange fee for merchants that accept Visa credit and debit card payments. For their part, they attempt to be very clear and straightforward about these charges.

To better understand how Visa interchange rates might affect your business, it’s important to cover the basics first.

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

Visa Interchange Rates

According to the card network, Visa’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 Visa interchange fee schedule here. However, we’ve drawn up a simplified version below of Visa interchange rates for US-based merchants.

Visa Debit & Credit Interchange Rates (US Merchants):

Visa Interchange Fees
Visa Debit Card	Swipe Rate (card present)
Visa Debit (big bank/regulated)	0.8% + 15¢
MC Debit Regulated	0.05% + 22¢
Visa Debit Prepaid	1.15% + 15¢
Visa Debit Card	Keyed Rate (card not present)
Visa Debit (big bank/regulated)	1.65% + 15¢
MC Debit Regulated	0.05% + 22¢
Visa Debit Prepaid	1.75% + 20¢
Visa Credit Card	Swipe Rate (card present)
Visa Credit Basic	1.51% + 10¢
Visa Rewards Traditional	1.65% + 10¢
Visa Rewards Signature	2.30% + 10¢
Visa Rewards Signature Preferred	2.1% + 10¢
Visa Business	2.20% + 10¢
Visa Corporate	2.70% + 10¢
Visa Credit Card	Keyed Rate (card not present)
Visa Credit Basic	1.80% + 10¢
Visa Rewards Traditional	1.95% + 10¢
Visa Rewards Signature	2.70% + 10¢
Visa Rewards Signature Preferred	2.40% + 10¢
Visa Business	2.25% + 20¢
Visa Corporate	2.70% + 10¢
Visa International	Interchange Rates
Visa International	1.10%
Visa International Premium	1.80%
Visa International Corporate	2.00%
Visa International Keyed	1.60%

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

Visa interchange rates are typically updated semiannually, and their website is updated to accommodate any updates to said interchange rates.

Visa Interchange Rates are Subject to ChangeDue 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.

We should expect another round of updates this October, which may either lower or raise Visa interchange fees. Regardless, taking steps to reduce risk is the best move you can make to try and minimize costs.