What are the fees on a credit card processing statement?

Your total processing fees divided by your total card volume, expressed as a percent. It is the single honest number for what you actually pay — it cuts through every pricing model and add-on line.

Example: $1,150 in total fees on $40,000 of volume = a 2.875% effective rate. A typical small business on fair interchange-plus pricing lands lower than a business on tiered or flat-rate; the gap is the markup. This is the number our Statement Decoder computes first.

The wholesale fee set by Visa/Mastercard and paid to the card-issuing bank on every transaction. It is the largest, non-negotiable layer — the same for every processor — and varies by card type (rewards cards cost more).

Interchange is published by the card networks and updated about twice a year (typically April and October). No processor can lower it; anyone who claims to is repricing the markup, not interchange. A common blended interchange for in-person small-business card mix is roughly in the high-1% to low-2% range, as read June 24, 2026 — but it depends entirely on your card mix; read your own statement.

The card network's own fee (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, Amex), separate from interchange and also paid through to the network. Small and non-negotiable — commonly around 0.13–0.15% of volume, as read June 2026.

Interchange + assessments together are the true wholesale cost of accepting a card — the floor no honest processor goes below. Everything above this floor is the processor markup.

What your processor charges ABOVE interchange + assessments — its actual price for the service. This is the only negotiable layer and the figure almost no statement isolates. On interchange-plus it is shown as "+X% + $Y per transaction".

This is the number that matters and the number statements rarely itemize. A competitive markup for a small business is often in the roughly 0.10%–0.50% + a few cents per transaction range, as read June 24, 2026; well-padded accounts can run several times that. Isolating it from the pass-through cost is the entire point of a statement audit — and our calculator does it.

The most transparent pricing model: you pay the true interchange + assessments, plus a clearly stated processor markup ("+0.20% + $0.10"). Because the markup is named, it is the only model where you can see — and negotiate — what the processor actually charges.

If you are on interchange-plus, the audit is easy: the markup is printed. If you are on flat-rate or tiered, the markup is hidden inside a blended number and has to be reverse-engineered from the effective rate.

One blended rate on every sale (e.g. 2.6% + 10¢ in person, 2.9% + 30¢ online), popularized by Square/Stripe. Simple and predictable, but it bundles interchange and a large markup into one number you cannot see inside.

Flat-rate is often fair at low volume and expensive at higher volume, because you pay the same markup on cheap debit cards as on costly rewards cards. The break-even where interchange-plus wins depends on your volume and card mix.

A model that sorts transactions into "qualified", "mid-qualified", and "non-qualified" buckets at rising rates. The processor decides which card lands in which bucket, which makes the real markup nearly impossible to read. Generally the least transparent model.

Tiered pricing is where "downgrades" live (see below). If your statement shows qualified/non-qualified tiers, the effective rate is usually the fastest way to see what you truly pay, because the tier labels are designed to obscure it.

On tiered pricing, when a transaction is bumped to a pricier "non-qualified" tier — often for rewards cards, keyed-in entries, or unsettled batches. Each downgrade quietly raises your effective rate above the advertised "qualified" headline.

A low advertised "qualified" rate paired with heavy downgrades is the classic tiered-pricing drawback: the rate you were sold is not the rate you pay. Moving to interchange-plus eliminates downgrades entirely.

A recurring fee tied to PCI-DSS data-security compliance. A compliance fee is often modest; a NON-compliance fee (for not completing the annual questionnaire) is a penalty — commonly around $9.95–$19.95/month, as read June 2026 — and is usually avoidable.

The non-compliance fee is one of the most common avoidable charges: completing the (free) annual self-assessment questionnaire usually removes it. Always check whether you are paying a penalty for paperwork you can file yourself.

A flat monthly charge for producing your statement — commonly around $5–$15/month, as read June 2026. It is pure markup (there is no third-party cost behind it) and is frequently negotiable or waivable.

A floor on the processing fees the provider will collect. If your actual fees fall below it, you pay the difference. It mainly bites low-volume or seasonal merchants and is often negotiable.

A small charge each time you settle the day’s transactions — commonly a few cents up to about $0.25 per batch, as read June 2026. Trivial per day, but it compounds, and like the statement fee it is markup, not pass-through.

A fee for the software that authorizes online/card-not-present transactions (e.g. Authorize.net). A monthly fee plus a small per-transaction charge. Legitimate for e-commerce, but sometimes duplicated or marked up.

A long-term, often non-cancellable contract to rent a card terminal. Over its term it routinely costs many times the outright price of the same device. Leasing a terminal is almost never in the merchant’s interest.

A terminal that costs a few hundred dollars to buy can cost well over a thousand across a multi-year lease. If your statement shows a lease line, it is one of the first things to question.