Credit Card Processing Rates & Fees
What's Behind That Rate You Were Quoted? We offer accounts for $0 monthly, 0% per transaction or rates below 1% per transaction.
As Far As Rates Go, There Are Two Types Of Transactions:
Keyed transactions are entered by manually typing in the customers credit card and personal information into a credit card terminal, or virtual terminal solution.
Swiped transactions typically have the cardholder and the credit card present at the time of sale. From the perspective of the credit card company, a swiped transaction is generally more secure than a keyed entry and therefore lower rates apply to those types of transactions. Two other factors that also affect the rate applied are the type of card used and the information surrounding the transaction.
There is no single transaction rate for merchant service accounts. In fact there are over 1300 rate categories governed by Visa. With so many variables involved, a single rate quote is virtually useless. This is why we offer a free rate review for all our potential merchants. Beware of any merchant account provider that quotes you any single percentage as a rate, you will pay too much when you actually begin to process credit cards.
Card Types:
Various card types exist further complicating the question of rates. Even though cards may look alike and be issued by the same bank to the same cardholder, there are different card types. Rewards cards for example, are the cards that people use to get cash back at the end of the year. These are the cards we use to get airline miles as well. There are corporate cards that are issued to a company for use by their employees, debit cards and several others. Each of these takes consideration in the discussion of rates and shows why there isn't a single rate applied accross all cards. If there were a single rate accross these cards, it would have to be set higher than necessary for all the other card types.
Credit card processing merchant accounts have many factors to consider when determining a rate that will be applied. Often, merchants are quoted a single low rate such as 1.5%. This is a very misleading number as there are many ways to process credit cards on any given transaction. Rates are calculated by knowing all the variables involved for a specific transaction. It all begins with the type of transactions you host.
Business Types:
Fast Food Restaurant Credit Card Processing.
Fine Dining Restaurant credit card processing.
Fast Food is processed at a different interchange rate than Fine Dining. There are a lot of subtle differences in business models and Visa MasterCard and American Express set their rates accordingly.
Similarly Paying for gas at the pump with your credit card that gives you airline miles is different than going into the convenience store at the gas station and paying for both gas and a cup of coffee or other refreshments perhaps with your debit or EBT (electronic benefits transfer) card.
gas station credit card processing.
convenience store credit card processing.
Rates are also attributed to certain business types and some industries have smaller niche business types. Consider a restaurant, which might deliver to the cardholder, another one might be fast food, still another might be a fine dining establishment. Each of these would be considered differently as to their credit card processing rates. Gas stations and travel agents have additional requirements that can also affect the rates of certain types of credit card processing as well. The easiest way to accurately answer what your processing rates will be is to ask for our Free Merchant Rates Review. Call today for yours.
As Far As Rates Go, There Are Two Types Of Transactions:
Keyed transactions are entered by manually typing in the customers credit card and personal information into a credit card terminal, or virtual terminal solution.
Swiped transactions typically have the cardholder and the credit card present at the time of sale. From the perspective of the credit card company, a swiped transaction is generally more secure than a keyed entry and therefore lower rates apply to those types of transactions. Two other factors that also affect the rate applied are the type of card used and the information surrounding the transaction.
There is no single transaction rate for merchant service accounts. In fact there are over 1300 rate categories governed by Visa. With so many variables involved, a single rate quote is virtually useless. This is why we offer a free rate review for all our potential merchants. Beware of any merchant account provider that quotes you any single percentage as a rate, you will pay too much when you actually begin to process credit cards.
Card Types:
Various card types exist further complicating the question of rates. Even though cards may look alike and be issued by the same bank to the same cardholder, there are different card types. Rewards cards for example, are the cards that people use to get cash back at the end of the year. These are the cards we use to get airline miles as well. There are corporate cards that are issued to a company for use by their employees, debit cards and several others. Each of these takes consideration in the discussion of rates and shows why there isn't a single rate applied accross all cards. If there were a single rate accross these cards, it would have to be set higher than necessary for all the other card types.
Credit card processing merchant accounts have many factors to consider when determining a rate that will be applied. Often, merchants are quoted a single low rate such as 1.5%. This is a very misleading number as there are many ways to process credit cards on any given transaction. Rates are calculated by knowing all the variables involved for a specific transaction. It all begins with the type of transactions you host.
Business Types:
Fast Food Restaurant Credit Card Processing.
Fine Dining Restaurant credit card processing.
Fast Food is processed at a different interchange rate than Fine Dining. There are a lot of subtle differences in business models and Visa MasterCard and American Express set their rates accordingly.
Similarly Paying for gas at the pump with your credit card that gives you airline miles is different than going into the convenience store at the gas station and paying for both gas and a cup of coffee or other refreshments perhaps with your debit or EBT (electronic benefits transfer) card.
gas station credit card processing.
convenience store credit card processing.
Rates are also attributed to certain business types and some industries have smaller niche business types. Consider a restaurant, which might deliver to the cardholder, another one might be fast food, still another might be a fine dining establishment. Each of these would be considered differently as to their credit card processing rates. Gas stations and travel agents have additional requirements that can also affect the rates of certain types of credit card processing as well. The easiest way to accurately answer what your processing rates will be is to ask for our Free Merchant Rates Review. Call today for yours.
- National Transaction Corporation
- February 19, 2023 | 2023-02-19