Answer

What is interchange?

Updated October 2026. Evergreen page — refreshed in place as facts change.

Credit interchange

~1.5–3%

Most US consumer credit cards, 2026

Regulated debit cap

21¢ + 0.05%

Plus a 1¢ fraud adjustment (Regulation II)

Debit cap applies to

$10B+ issuers

Smaller banks' debit is not capped

Network assessments

~0.13–0.16%

Of volume, plus per-item fees (2026)

Schedule updates

April, October

Visa and Mastercard, typically

Rate categories

Hundreds

Per network, by card, channel and merchant

Negotiable?

No

Only your provider's markup is

Flat-rate example

2.9% + 30¢

Stripe online, published Oct 2026

Interchange is why the same $100 sale can carry about 27 cents of card-issuer fees on one card and about $2.50 on another. It is set by the card networks, paid to the bank that issued the customer's card, and sits inside every card fee a business pays, whether the statement shows it or not. This guide covers what interchange is, where it goes, what sets each rate, the rule that caps debit, how each pricing model passes it on, and what a business can and cannot do about it.

Where does a card payment's fee actually go?

Every card fee splits three ways. Interchange goes to the bank that issued the customer's card and pays for rewards, fraud losses and the cost of credit. Assessment fees go to the card network for running the rails. The processor's markup is what your provider keeps for its service.

Interchange is the biggest slice and the one no small business can negotiate. The markup is the only part that changes when you change provider, which is why comparing providers means comparing what they add on top.

How is interchange collected?

Interchange never appears as a separate payment. When the day's card sales clear, the network works out the interchange on each one from its category and the card used, and the issuer sends the acquiring bank the sale amount minus that interchange. The acquirer and your provider then take network assessments and their own markup before paying you.

Some merchant accounts deduct everything daily, so each payout is already net; others pay out gross sales and bill the month's fees in one debit at the start of the next month. Either way, the interchange was taken at settlement, which is why an interchange-plus statement can list it as a pass-through line and a flat-rate provider can fold it into one rate.

What makes one interchange rate higher than another?

Visa and Mastercard each publish hundreds of interchange categories, and they typically update them twice a year, in April and October. The same $100 sale can carry very different interchange depending on a handful of factors.

Debit is the big exception. Under the Federal Reserve's Regulation II, which implements the Durbin Amendment, debit interchange for issuers with $10 billion or more in assets is capped, at 21 cents plus 0.05% plus a 1-cent fraud-prevention adjustment under the long-standing rule. The Fed has proposed lowering that cap, so check the current figure.

The cap is also being fought over in court. In August 2025 a federal district court in North Dakota ruled that the Fed had counted costs the law does not allow and vacated the rule, then stayed its own decision while the Fed appeals, so the cap still applies; the Fed's 2023 proposal to lower it has not been finalized (status as of October 2026). Debit cards from banks and credit unions under $10 billion in assets are exempt, and their interchange is set by the networks' schedules instead.

• Card type: regulated debit costs least, then standard credit, then rewards and premium cards, then business and corporate cards
• Card present or not: chip and contactless payments qualify for lower rates than online or keyed-in payments
• Merchant category: some categories, such as supermarkets and charities, have their own rates
• Data sent with the payment: missing address checks, late settlement or absent invoice data on business cards can 'downgrade' a payment to a higher rate

Why do rewards and business cards cost more to accept?

Interchange pays for what the card gives its holder. A premium travel card with lounge access and generous points is funded largely by the interchange merchants pay on it, so it sits in a higher category than a basic credit card. Business and corporate cards sit higher again, because they carry larger balances, longer payment terms and richer rewards.

Business cards have one lever ordinary cards lack: enhanced data. A payment that carries invoice detail, such as the tax amount, a customer code and line items, can qualify for a lower commercial rate. Visa moved these rates into its Commercial Enhanced Data Program from April 2025 and retired its separate Level 2 rates in April 2026, so on Visa business cards it is now full line-item (Level 3) data that earns the lower rate. Ask your provider whether it sends that data; most all-in-one providers charge their flat rate on business cards either way.

Do American Express and Discover charge interchange?

Not in the same way. Visa and Mastercard are four-party networks: the bank that issues the card and the bank that acquires the merchant are separate, and interchange is the fee that passes between them. American Express has traditionally been a three-party network, issuing most of its own cards and signing merchants itself, so it charges a merchant discount rate rather than interchange in the Visa sense.

Many small businesses take Amex through OptBlue, an American Express program that lets a payment provider sign the business up and set the price, which is why Amex usually sits inside the same flat rate as every other card. Discover issues most of its own cards and runs its own network, and Capital One completed its purchase of Discover in May 2025, so that network's economics may change in the next few years. On flat-rate pricing none of this changes the price of a sale; on interchange-plus, check how each brand is passed through.

Flat-rate, interchange-plus and tiered pricing, side by side

How interchange reaches your statement depends on your pricing model. On flat-rate pricing it is invisible: one rate covers every card, and the provider keeps the difference between that rate and the real interchange, earning more on debit and less on premium rewards cards. On interchange-plus, the real interchange and assessments are passed through at cost and the provider adds a fixed markup.

Tiered pricing sorts payments into buckets such as qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified, with the provider deciding which bucket each payment lands in. It is the hardest model to compare, and the one to question most closely.

A worked example: one $100 sale, three cards

The figures below are illustrative interchange levels, not quoted rates, to show why the card in the customer's hand changes the real cost. Assessments add roughly another 14 cents on $100, and the processor's markup comes on top.

On flat-rate pricing the business pays the same on all three. At Stripe's published 2.9% + 30¢ (October 2026) each of these sales costs $3.20, whatever the card. On interchange-plus, the debit sale would cost far less and the rewards card more.

Can a small business lower its interchange?

Not directly: interchange is set by the networks, not by you or your provider. You can avoid paying more than you need to, and you can choose a pricing model that matches your card mix.

Anytime Capital Payments uses one published flat rate for US card and wallet payments, with no monthly, setup or PCI fees, and quotes custom pricing for businesses processing $1M+ a year. Its rate and a comparison with other providers are on the pricing page.

• Take payments in person with chip or contactless where you can, rather than keying in card numbers
• Send address and security-code data with online payments, and settle each day's payments the same day
• Move large business-to-business invoices to ACH, where there is no interchange at all
• At higher volumes, compare an interchange-plus quote against your flat rate on a real month's statement

Is interchange going to change?

It is under pressure from two directions in 2026. For credit cards, Visa and Mastercard proposed a revised settlement with merchants in November 2025 that would lower the average effective credit interchange rate by 0.1 percentage point for five years, hold rates on standard consumer cards at 1.25%, and let merchants decline some higher-cost premium cards. A federal judge granted preliminary approval in June 2026, and the terms take effect only once the settlement is finally approved. For debit, the Regulation II appeal described above could change the cap in either direction.

Even without either, interchange moves twice a year, when the networks publish their April and October updates. A business on interchange-plus should expect its blended cost to shift a little each time; a business on flat-rate pricing sees no change unless its provider changes the rate, which is one reason flat pricing appeals to businesses that want a predictable cost per sale.