CardFellow Credit Card Processing Blog

Interchange Fees

Mastercard Interchange Fees for Restaurants

by Ellen Cunningham

Specifically, Mastercard does not have a restaurant-specific category for basic consumer credit cards. However, it does have restaurant-specific categories for consumer “rewards” cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards. In this article, we’ll take a look at the credit card rates for restaurants that accept Mastercard. Looking for a more general explanation of credit card processing…

Restaurants that accept Mastercards may see specific restaurant interchange fees or general fees. That’s because Mastercard has restaurant-specific categories for some cards, but not others.

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Interchange Fees

Mastercard Merit 1 Interchange Fees

by Ellen Cunningham

It’s Mastercard’s way of referring to common “card not present” transactions, meaning online and keyed payments. It applies to several possible card types (including credit, debit, and prepaid) and both rewards and non-rewards cards. It does not apply to “card present” transactions where you swipe a card through a terminal. This article gets into finer…

Merit 1 (or Merit I) is a set of Mastercard interchange categories that dictate the rates for certain Mastercard payments.

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Interchange Fees

CPS Car Rental and CPS Hotel – Card Not Present Interchange

by Ellen Cunningham

“Card not present” or CNP refers specifically to any transaction that is not swiped (for magnetic stripe cards), dipped (for EMV chip cards) or tapped (for contactless payment methods like Apple Pay.) If you don’t physically run a card through a machine using one of those methods, the card is considered “card not present.” If…

CPS Car Rental, CPS Hotel, and CPS Passenger Transport are interchange categories that determine the interchange fees a business in one of those industries pays to accept a card online or by keying it in.

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Interchange Fees

CPS Hotel and CPS Car Rental Card Present Interchange

by Ellen Cunningham

We’re also including “CPS Passenger Transport” (such as airlines, cruises, and railways) interchange categories in this article. The reason is that all of these industries fall under “travel and entertainment” and many have the same requirements and rates despite the different business types. These categories only apply to “card present” transactions, but apply to all…

“CPS Hotel” and “CPS Car Rental” are Visa interchange categories that determine the rates and fees a hotel or car rental agency will pay to accept cards in person.

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Interchange Fees

Visa International Card Not Present Interchange

by Ellen Cunningham

For the purposes of interchange, “international” cards are credit and debit cards issued by a bank located outside of the United States. Visa also sometimes refers to the cards and interchange as “interregional” instead of international. These categories apply to both international credit and debit cards in a “card not present” (CNP) transaction. They do…

The international card not present interchange categories determine the fee a U.S.-based business will pay to accept an international Visa card online or by keying in card details.

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Interchange Fees

International Card Present Credit – Visa Interchange

by Ellen Cunningham

Interchange fees make up the bulk of total credit card processing costs. The specific interchange category that will apply to any given transaction depends on the card type and other factors. These international card present categories refer to credit cards issued outside the United States, but used in-person at a U.S. business. Many U.S. businesses…

Visa’s international card present credit interchange categories dictate the interchange fees a business will pay to accept an international credit card at a business in the U.S.

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Interchange Fees

Visa Enhanced Data Interchange Rates and Requirements

by Ellen Cunningham

Providing level 2 / level 3 data can make a business eligible for enhanced data interchange categories, which carry lower rates and fees than non-enhanced categories. Enhanced data is only available for certain types of commercial card transactions, or B2B payments. It does not apply to consumer transactions. B2B processing and enhanced data are specialty…

Enhanced data (also sometimes called level 2 or level 3 data) refers to information provided with a credit card transaction that goes beyond the basic details.

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Interchange Fees

Commercial Card Not Present Visa Interchange

by Ellen Cunningham

These categories do not represent the lower rates available for enhanced data, which we’ll also explain in this article. Additionally, these categories only apply to commercial credit cards. They do not apply to commercial debit and prepaid cards, nor to consumer cards of any type. Commercial Credit Card Not Present Interchange Rates Corporate Credit Card…

Commercial card not present interchange refers to categories that determine the fee a business will pay for accepting commercial credit cards online or by keying in the transaction information.

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