Fee Definitions : Complete Merchant Solutions

All listed fees and associated rates are subject to change without notice and may not be listed correctly below.

ACQ ISA Fee

Name: Acquirer International Service Assessment Fee

Fee: charged on certain international transactions

Fee Amount: 0.40%

Details

Effective April 1, 2018 Visa implemented a new international service assessment (ISA) fee for certain eligible international transactions. For these transactions, Visa will charge a fee of 0.15% for cash advance (for banking institutions) and ATM transactions and 0.40% for sale transactions. The ISA fee will be added to your account as applicable and will be designated in the summary of card fees section on your statement as ACQ ISA fee. This is a universal fee that all processors may charge if applicable. If you do not take international cards this does not apply. 0.40% - International Service Assessment Fee. The International Service Assessment Fee applies to U.S. acquired transactions paid for with a card issued outside of the U.S.

ACQ Support

Name: Acquirer Support Fee

Fee: charged eligible international transactions

Fee Amount: 0.45% on eligible cards

Details

MasterCard will charge an Acquirer Support Fee of 0.45% for certain eligible international transactions or internet transactions that were authenticated via a special channel encryption

ACQR Processor

Name: Acquirer Processing Fee

Fee: Charged on all authorizations acquired in the United States

Fee Amount: Flat Fee $0.0195

Details

Visa began charging an acquirer processing fee (APF) on July 1, 2009 on all authorizations acquired in the United States. The acquirer processing fee is a flat transaction fee that is currently assessed at $0.0195. Visa now charges a sperate Acquirer Processing Fee for debit and credit card transactions. The PF for credit transactions is $0.0195 and the APF for debit card transactions is $0.0155. This is not an interchange fee, and it is not passed to card-issuing banks. Instead, the acquirer processing fee is kept by Visa and generates roughly $500 million in annual revenue. Visa added ints acquirer processing fees shortly after going public, and many industry experts feel confident that the fee was imposed in response to shareholder demand for increased revenue. $0.0195 - Acquirer Processing Fee (APF) - Credit. $0.0155 - Acquirer Processing Fee (APF) - Debit. The Acquirer Processing Fee applies to all U.S. - based credit card authorizations acquired in the U.S. regardless of where the issuer/cardholder is located. If your business is based in the U.S., the acquirer processing fee will apply to all Visa credit card authorizations. On April 1, 2012, Visa began charging a separate lower APF of $0.0155 for transactions involving a debit card.

AVS

Name: Address Verification System

Fee:Charged per keyed transaction that does not verify address or if verification fails

Fee Amount:Generally $.10 (can be found per merchant under FDR Income Factors)

Details

This fee only applies to merchants who key in their credit card transactions. It’s usually between 5 and 10 cents, and is lumped in with the transaction fees, although some processors charge this as a separate line item. AVS provides you with valuable address and zip code information that helps reduce fraud. AVS is mandatory on all Visa and MasterCard transactions and on all keyed transactions where the card is not present. MasterCard charges a fee each time a merchant access the address verification service when processing a transaction. MasterCard's AVS fee is a little higher for card-not-present merchants than it is for card-present merchants. MasterCard's AVS for card-present businesses is listed just below.

AVS ECICPU

Name: Address Verification System run via Computer (CPU)/ ECI Electronic Commerce Indicator

Fee:A fee taht helps enables internet transactions to be distinguished from other transaction types.

Fee Amount: See Merchants Statement

Details

A transaction data field used by e-commerce merchants and acquirers to differentiate Internet merchants from other merchant types. Use of the ECI in authorization and settlement messages helps e-commerce merchants meet visa processing requirements and enables Internet transactions to be distinguished from other transaction types. Visa requires all e-commerce merchants to use the ECI.

AVS POS

Name: Address Verification System run via Point of Sale (POS)

Fee:Charged per keyed transaction that does not verify address or if verification fails

Fee Amount:Generally $.10 (can be found per merchant under FDR Income Factors)

Details

BankCD TOT

Name:BankCard Total

Details

Total deposits for MasterCard and Visa card types.

Batch Header

Name:Batch Header

Fee:The fee for closing out each batch of credit card transactions before funds are deposited in the merchant’s checking account/ charged a fee of $0.25 (25 cents) by your bank processor each time you batch your transactions.

Fee Amount:Generally $.25 (can be found per merchant under FDR Income Factors)

Details

A batch header fee is a small fee that the merchant bank charges for submitting a batch of transactions to be settled. If you batch only once a day, you will be charged only once a day. You only need to batch on the days that you receive credit card orders. If you AUTO BATCH you will be charged for EACH transaction. (Note: the bank processor charges a penalty for not batching within 24 hours.)

Cross Boarder

Name:Cross Border

Fee:Fees for receiving payments from buyers outside the United States.

Fee Amount:Generally $.25 (can be found per merchant under FDR Income Factors)

Details

MasterCard began charging a cross border fee on all transactions acquired in the United States that involve a credit card issued outside of the United States. For example, if a cardholder uses their Canadian-issued MasterCard to make a purchase from a business in Montana, the business will be assessed a cross border fee. The cross border fee is 40 basis points (0.40%) only if the transaction is settled in U.S. dollars. It is increased to 80 basis points if the transaction is settled in foreign currency. MasterCard’s cross border fee is assessed as a percentage of the transaction amount. The fee was first introduce in 2006 as a 10 basis point charge, but has been increased a few times since then to 30 basis points in 2007, and then to its current level of 40 basis points in 2008. The cross border assessment fee is one of two volume-based fees that MasterCard charges on transactions involving credit cards issued in another region than where they are acquired. The other fee assessed on this type of transaction is MasterCard’s acquirer program support fee. The cross border fee is charged to acquirers that ultimately pass the cost to merchants.

DCVR ACQ

Name:Discovers Acquirer Processor Fee

Fee:

Fee Amount: see merchants statement

Details

Similar to Visa’s Acquirer Processor Fee and MasterCard's NABU Fee. This is Discover's per-item fee which is passed directly to the merchant.

Debit Access

Name:Debit Access

Fee: based on the merchants acceptance for pin based debit cards

Fee Amount: can vary generally $.20

Details

A monthly fee billed to merchants who accept pin-based debit.

Digital Enablement Fee

Name: MasterCard Digital Enablement Fee

Fee: Dependent on the MasterCard CNP sales volumes

Fee Amount: see Statement

Details

Effective January 2015, MasterCard will begin charging a Digital Enablement Fee. This fee will be assessed on MasterCard card-not-present sales volumes involving signature debit, consumer credit and commercial credit transactions.

Disc 6

Name:Discount Fee 6

Fee: Discount Fee

Fee Amount: see merchants application or statement

Details

Discount fee charged to the merchant for processing cards.

DISCV Data Usage

Name: Discover Data Usage Fee

Fee: billed to merchants who accept Discover

Fee Amount: $0.0185

Details

Discover's "Data Usage Fee" billed to merchants who accept Discover/ $0.0185 - The Data Usage Fee applies to all U.S.-based authorization transactions.

Dues and Assessments

Name: Dues and Assessments

Fee: Hard costs from each card type

Fee Amount: Discover 0.105% Visa .11%

Details

Discover: 0.105% - The assessment applies to gross Discover card transaction volume. Update: On April 13, 2012, Discover's assessment increased from 0.10% to 0.105%. Visa: .11% - Assessment The assessment applies to gross Visa transaction volume. This is typically billed on “interchange passthrough” accounts, but can be billed to anyone if so indicated. The fee comes from the Association (Visa, MC, Discover) and is how the association makes their money for processing the cards through their network.

ECI CPU

Name: ECI CPU

Fee:A fee that helps enables internet transactions to be distinguished from other transaction types.

Fee Amount: See Merchants Statement

Details

ECI Dial

Name: ECI Dial

Fee:A fee that helps enables internet transactions to be distinguished from other transaction types.

Fee Amount: See Merchants Statement

Details

EIRF

Name: Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee

Fee: An interchange fee class directly reltaed to Visa

Fee Amount: EIRF Debit: 1.75% + $0.20

EIRF Prepaid: 1.80% + $0.20

EIRF Credit: 2.30% + $0.10

Details

An interchange fee class directly related to Visa. If a card does not qualify for a specific interchange level (cps retail etc) it may "downgrade" to EIRF. The EIRF rate is applied to card transactions that are either missing compliance data elements or are settled within 2 days of authorization. Causes of Fee: 1)Not settling within 2 days of the authorization (EIRF) or 3 days of the authorization (Standard) 2)Submitting transactions with missing data elements 3)The Authorization amount must match the Settlement amount except for merchant types that are allowed a variance for tips.

FANF

Name: The Fixed Acquirer Network Fee

Fee: Effective April 1, 2012, the FANF is a monthly fee that varies based on processing method, number of locations and volume. See the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee calculator to determine the FANF for your business.

Fee Amount: See Merchants Statement and Processing Amount

Details

Previously called Network Participation Fee (NPF). The FANF was previously communicated by Visa as the Network Participation Fee. Amount Varies Based on Multiple Factors. Merchant Category Code (MCC). The merchant category code used to classify a business plays a role in the amount of the FANF charged each month. However, the impact of the MCC is very minimal, amounting to a difference of $0.90 - $1.10 for most businesses (less than fifty locations).

Acceptance Method

The main factor in determining the amount of the FANF is whether a business processes the majority of its transactions in a card present or card not present environment. Card Present Businesses (Excluding Fast Food Restaurants / MCC 5814). The amount of the Fixed Acquirer Network Fee for card present businesses will be based number of locations. Businesses with one location will be charged $2 - $2.90 a month, up to $85 a month for businesses with 4,000 or more locations. Card-Not-Present Businesses (As well as Fast Food Restaurants / MCC 5814). For card-not-present businesses, the amount of the FANF will be based on gross Visa processing volume. Card-not-present businesses will see a greater impact from the FANF than card-present businesses due to the fee being determined by volume. For example, card-not-present business processing between $8,000 and $39,999 will be hit with a Fixed Acquirer Network Fee of $15 a month opposed to just $2 for a card present business with similar volume and one location. Waived for Eligible Charitable / Social Service Organizations (MCC 8398). Visa will waive the FANF for charitable organizations classified under merchant category code 8398. Exactly how the fee will be waived isn’t quite clear at the moment, but early indications are that Visa will charge the FANF and then provide a rebate at a later date. Visa Income, Separate from Interchange. The Fixed Acquirer Network Fee is separate from interchange and is more like assessments in that the income generated from the FANF goes to Visa.

ICA AVS CNP/CP

Name: MasterCard AVS Acquirer Access Fee Card Not Present (CNP) Card Present (CP)

Fee:

Fee Amount: See Statement

Details

MasterCard assesses this fee when the AVS system is accessed at the time of the CNP/CP transaction authorization.

Interchange

Fee: Fee charged by the Issuing Bank (bank on front of card) to the Acquiring Bank (NBCal) for processing the card. Also known as a hard cost.

Fee Amount: See Statement

Details

The transaction fee on credit card and debit card purchases charged by the banks that issue the cards. The interchange fee is designed to compensate for risk (the card user might not pay) and for the costs of processing a transaction. It is paid by the merchants who accept the cards for payment. An interchange fee typically comprises a fixed charge per transaction plus a percentage of the amount charged.

Interlink

Name: Interlink

Fee: Interlink is the Electronic Funds Transfer division of Visa.

Fee Amount:See Statement

Details

Operating mainly in the United States. Contrary to a regular Visa check card purchase, an Interlink transaction is authenticated using a personal identification number and offers the possibility of obtaining cash back (purchase and withdrawal) from a merchant.

InterNTL ACQ

Name: International Acquirer Fee

Fee: assessed to certain international cards run here in the United States.

Fee Amount: Visa 0.45%

Details

Effect October 2009, Visa began charging a fee of 0.45% (forty-five basis points) for transactions acquired within the United States involving a card issued by a bank outside of the United States.

Kilobyte Access Fee

Name: Visa Kilobyte Access

Fee: Visa Kilobyte Fee

Fee Amount:

Details

The Kilobyte Fee is assessed on each authorization transaction submitted to Visa's network for settlement.

Maestro

Name: Multi-National Debit Card

Fee: was founded in 1990 and is a MasterCard fee

Fee Amount:See Statement

Details

Maestro cards are obtained from associate banks and can be linked to the card holder's current account, or they can be prepaid cards.

The cardholder presents the card at the point of sale (POS) and this is swiped through the terminal by the assistant or the customer or inserted into a chip and PIN device. The payment is authorised by the card issuer to ensure that the cardholder has sufficient funds in their account to make the purchase and the cardholder confirms the payment by either signing the sales receipt or entering their 4 to 6-digit PIN.

Within the EU and certain other countries, Maestro is MasterCard's main debit brand and is the equivalent of signature debit card which does not require electronic authorisation, similar to the Visa Debit card. In most other countries, Maestro is equivalent to a Visa Electron and is MasterCard's tertiary card. It requires electronic authorisation much like a Solo debit card, i.e. not only must the information stored in either the chip or the magnetic stripe be read, this has to be sent from the merchant to the issuing bank, the issuing bank then has to respond with an affirmative authorisation. If the information is not read, the issuer will decline the transaction, regardless of any disposable amount on the connected account. This is different from other debit and credit cards, where the information can be entered manually into the terminal (i.e. by punching the 13 to 19 digits and the expiry date on the terminal) and still be approved by the issuer or stand-in processor.

MDES

Name: MasterCard Digital Enablement Service (MDES)

Fee: Effective January 5TH 2015

Fee Amount:0.01%

Details

Effective January 5th, 2015 MasterCard is implementing a new Digital Enablement Fee of 0.01% to be assessed on all MasterCard credit and signature debit dollar volume for cardholder not present sales. Cardholder present sales will be excluded from the assessment.

1. MDES helps transform any connected device into a commerce device to make and receive payments. The MDES platform is helping power the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch to enable secure payments to take place for contactless and in-app payments.

2. All MasterCard transactions made through Apple Pay are ready to use industry-standard EMV-level security, and are protected using standards-based payment tokens. Tokens are card numbers that mobile devices use in place of the card number printed on the plastic. MDES validates the transaction, maps from the token back to the PAN and forwards it to the issuer for authorization.

3. What kind of transactions does MDES support? MDES supports contactless payments and Digital Secure Remote Payments (DSRP). DSRP is a transaction method where a consumer is able to make in-app purchases using a token. Contactless payments leverage NFC technology for point-of-sale transactions, while DSRP delivers EMV-like transaction for in-app payments.

Misuse Auth Fee

Name: MISUSE AUTH FEES

Fee: October 1, 2009 Visa began assessing the Misuse Auth Fee

Fee Amount: Visa $0.045

Details

Starting October 1, 2009, Visa will start assessing a 'misuse' fee for authorizations that are not either settled or reversed within certain timeframes. Visa refers to these as 'ghost authorizations'/ $0.045 - Misuse of Authorization Fee

A Visa fee billed to merchants who authorize, but then never settle a transaction. It is a set fixed fee billed per item when the merchant authorizes the card, and a settlement never follows

In the past, merchants frequently performed a $1.00 authorization only (without settlement) for verification and to retrieve address verification (AVS) and CVV match or mismatch information. Visa explains that they're trying to reduce ghost authorizations because they restrict a cardholders ability to buy and increases declines.

The Misuse of Authorization Fee applies to Visa authorizations that are not followed by a matching clearing transaction (or in the case of a cancelled or timed out authorization, not properly reversed).

MC MOST

Name: MasterCard Merchant Online Status Tracking System Fee

Fee: This fee is in associated with the card brand chargeback program

Fee Amount: Can be between $500.00 - $2,000.00

Details

This is a fee from the MasterCard Merchant Online Status Tracking System and is tied to the merchants chargeback results and history.

MQUAL Disc

Name: Mid Qualified Discount

Fee: Hard costs from each card type

Fee Amount: See Statement or Application

Details

The Mid-Qualified Discount rate will be charged for all manually keyed bankcard transactions that pass address verification.

Mid Qualified Discount. Depending on the account settings (retail, MOTO) this qualification has different meanings.

NABU

Name: Network Access Brand Usage Fee

Fee: MasterCard charges this on some settled or refunded signature debit card transactions

Fee Amount: MasterCard $0.0185

Details

MasterCard calls this charge a Network Access Brand Usage fee/ $0.0185 on all settle or refunded credit and signature debit card transactions.

Effective January 8, 2012 MasterCard’s NABU fee will apply to authorization transactions instead of settlement transactions. The NABU fee will remain for refund requests.

Revenue generated from the NABU fee goes directly to MasterCard. It is not collected by credit card processors or issuing banks.

NAPF-Credit

Name: Visa Authorization Processing Fee (APF) - Variable Credit

Fee: Visa Authorization Processing Fee

Fee Amount:

Details

The Visa Authorization Processing Fee applies to all Visa-branded credit authorizations acquired in the US regardless of where the issuer or cardholder is located. This fee will not apply to zero dollar verification messages or credit authorization reversals.

NAPF-Debit/PP

Name: Visa Authorization Processing Fee (APF) - Variable Debit

Fee: Visa Authorization Processing Fee

Fee Amount:

Details

The Visa Authorization Processing Fee applies to all Visa-branded Non-Pin (DB) and Pre-paid (PP) authorizations acquired in the US regardless of where the issuer or cardholder is located. This fee will not apply to zero dollar verification messages or credit authorization reversals.

Network Part CNP

Name: Dues and Assessments

Fee: Hard costs from each card type

Fee Amount: Discover 0.105% Visa .11%

Details

Discover: 0.105% - The assessment applies to gross Discover card transaction volume. Update: On April 13, 2012, Discover's assessment increased from 0.10% to 0.105%.

Visa: .11% - Assessment The assessment applies to gross Visa transaction volume.

This is typically billed on “interchange passthrough” accounts, but can be billed to anyone if so indicated. The fee comes from the Association (Visa, MC, Discover) and is how the association makes their money for processing the cards through their network.

NPF

Name: Network Participation Card Not PResent

Fee: Visa implemented this new fee mid- to late-2012

Fee Amount: See Processing rates amounts compared to the fees below

Details

For card-not-present businesses, the amount of the FANF will be based on gross Visa processing volume. Card-not-present businesses will see a greater impact from the FANF than card-present businesses due to the fee being determined by volume.

Fees are listed below:

$50 and under: $2.00 per month

$50 - $199: $2.90 per month

$200 - $999: $5.00 per month

$1,000 - $3,999: $7.00 per month

$4,000 - $7,999: $9.00 per month

$8,000 - $39,999: $15.00 per month

$40,000 - $199,999: $45.00 per month

$200,000 - $799,999: $120 per month

$800,000 - $1,999,999: $350

$2,000,000 - $3,999,999: $700

$4,000,000 - $7,999,999: $1,500

$8,000,000 - $19,999,999: $3,500

$40,000,000 – $79,999,999: $15,000

$80,000,000 - $399,999,999: $30,000

$400,000,000 and over: $40,000

NQUAL Disc

Name: Non Qualified Discount

Fee: Hard costs from each card type

Fee Amount: See Statement or Application

Details

the Non-Qualified Discount rate will be charged for most travel and rewards cards, business cards, cards issued by a foreign bank, government cards, and other bankcard transactions that do not meet the requirements of the Qualified or Mid-Qualified rates.

POS Auths

Name: Pint of Sale Authorization

Fee: Per-inquiry fee charged when the terminal dials out using a system of many lines

Fee Amount: See Statement or Application

Details

An authorization fee is charged each time a business authorizes a credit card transaction. The authorization fee is the most widely publicized transaction fee, and it's often what a processor refers to generally as its transaction fee.

POS Wats

Name: POS WATS

Fee: Per-inquiry fee charged when the terminal dials the First Data Resources toll-free number

Fee Amount: $0.10 on top of the POS Auth

Details

A pos wats or pos wat fee is a communication fee that is charged each time a business's credit card equipment dials the processor's toll-free 800 number to get or give information.

The acronym POS stands for point of sale, and the acronym WATS stands for wide-area telephone service. When taken together POS-WATS stands for point of sale wide-area telephone service (fee).

The pos-wats fee is a credit card transaction fee that is often charged in addition to other transaction fees such as authorization fees, return fees, and AVS fees. This is what gives the pos-wats fee the potential to make quite an impact on a business's credit card processing fees.

Since the pos wats fee is charged each time the business's credit card machine calls the processor's toll-free 800 number, it will be assessed along with any additional transaction fees. In this case, the processor will charge $0.10 per transaction as an authorization fee and another $0.10 per transaction for the pos wats fee for a total of $0.20.

While several processors refer to the communication fee as a wats fee, the exact abbreviation POS-WATS is used by First Data. Being the largest processor in the United States, First Data provides processing services for a number of different companies.

Processing Integrity Fee

Name: MasterCard Processing Integrity Fee

Fee: applied to authorizations that are not cleared or reversed.

Fee Amount: See Statement or Application

Details

The MasterCard Processing Integrity Fee will apply to authorizations that are not cleared or reversed (full or partial) within MasterCard time frames. MasterCard will assess the fee on authorizations not matched to a subsequent clearing record within 120 days of the original authorizations. Reversals must occur within 24 hours in a card present environment, 72 hours in a card not present environment or 0 days in a Travel & Entertainment (T&E) environment. T&E Merchants include Lodging (MCC 3501-3999, 7011), Car Rental (MCC 3351-3441, 7512) and Cruise Lines (MCC 4411). T&E Merchants were previously exempt from the MasterCard reversal and clearing mandate but will be included effective October 18, 2013.

Tran Integrity Fee

Name: Visa Debit Integrity Fee

Fee: Applied to Regulated and non-regulated debit and prepaid card transactions

Fee Amount:

Details

The Visa Debit Integrity Fee will apply to Regulated and Non-Regulated (Non-PIN) Debit and Prepaid card transactions that do not request Custom Payment Service (CPS) participation or fail CPS qualification. This fee will apply to US merchants accepting US issued cards.

VISA AFD PA NO

Name: Visa Automated Fuel Dispenser (ADF) Partial Auth Non Participant Fee

Fee: This fee is in associated with a partial authorization with automated Fuel Dispenser (ADF)

Fee Amount:

Details

The ADF Partial Authorization Non Participant Fee will be charged on any Visa transactions for any ADF merchant that does not participate in partial authorizations.

Zero Floor Limit

Name: Visa Zero Floor Limit

Fee: Visa Zero Floor Limit Fee

Fee Amount:

Details

The Visa Zero Floor Limit Fee will be assessed on settled transactions that cannot be matched to previously approved or partially-approved electronic authorizations.

Article ID: 36000106479

Fee Definitions Print

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