Almost every establishment now accepts Credit and Debit Card payments. Most small businesses will engage with a merchant service provider to set up a merchant account that will allow them to accept electronic payments.
The exchange of information between merchants, Credit Card firms, issuing banks, customer banks, and other parties is an important element of this process. This interchange is the procedure for approving or rejecting information about a purchase in order to complete the financial transaction.
The interchange fee is paid to the issuing bank in exchange for putting Credit Cards in the hands of customers and facilitating transactions. The cost covers services like security, fraud protection, and real-time authorization of your business’s transactions.
What is Interchange?
It’s the cost of a Credit Card transaction. Interchanges are, in their most basic form, an electronic handshake between a firm and the financial institutions providing an electronic payment.
When you handle a Credit Card transaction, your Credit Card processor retains a percentage of the transaction as a service fee for processing that transaction. This is called the discount rate. If you process Credit Cards, you’re probably already familiar with this charge.
What you may not have noticed or considered previously is that when your processor completed the transaction for you, Visa or MasterCard charged them a fee. The processor does not receive all of the fees collected. In actuality, Visa and MasterCard will get a major chunk of the discount rate fee, which will be passed on to the card issuing bank.
With this in mind, you’ll see why the processor must pay Visa and MasterCard every time a Credit Card transaction is handled. This cost is referred to as the interchange rate. Interchanges aren’t all made equal. The interchange rate is determined by a number of factors including the type of Credit Card used and the cardholder’s location.
Interchange Fees for Small Businesses
Transaction fees are fees paid by a merchant’s bank account whenever a consumer uses a Credit or Debit Card to make a purchase at their store.
These fees are used to pay a variety of costs that are paid by issuing banks, including as risk, handling, and bad debt costs. It’s also worth noting that interchange fees account for roughly 70% to 90% of the overall fees that retailers pay to banks.
Interchange charge rates per transaction can vary significantly based on the card type, the business specifics, the merchant account details, and other factors. Fees for currency exchange may also alter over time. Typical rate is 2% of transactional values.
How Does Interchange Work?
The important thing to remember is that interchange varies. The interchange rate will increase if a payment is made with a premium card. It will also increase if you use a corporate Credit Card or an international Credit Card.
Other factors can also influence the exchange rate’s fluctuation. A transaction in which the card is physically present (such as at a cash register in a store) will, for example, qualify for a lower interchange rate than if the card is not there (like in an eCommerce transaction).
Can I Avoid Paying Interchange fees?
If you wish to accept electronic payments, you can’t. Working with a reliable merchant service provider, picking the best pricing options for your needs, and utilising best practices to avoid costly chargebacks and other penalties are the best strategies to lower interchange fees for business owners trying to save money on Credit Card processing fees.
What are Merchant Services?
Your merchant service provider is obligated to pay all of the following fees to the card-issuing bank as soon as you accept a transaction from a customer or donor. Furthermore, your MSP must provide you with the funds for the transaction right away. This necessitates a significant amount of effort in the background. Even if your customer hasn’t paid their Credit Card bill, your MSP deposits funds into your bank account for any processed transactions. Because managing your merchant account has operating overhead, you’ll have to pay a charge to the merchant service provider in addition to interchange (sometimes referred to as the merchant fee).
This extra charge is for risk management, depositing funds, providing technical support, and keeping the account compliant with federal and state requirements.
When accepting Credit Cards, most businesses overlook interchange charges, but the reality is that interchange and card association rates account for at least 80% of monthly service costs. That means that having a good understanding of interchange rates can help you take cards in a logical way, while also ensuring that your merchant service provider treats you properly.
You’ll have access to special discounted freights, lower shipping costs, and larger margins with a Zaakpay merchant account, allowing you to expand and experiment with eCommerce. It uses an algorithm to select a carrier for you based on all of your partner carriers’ rates. You won’t have to worry about which carrier to use for your orders because of this. All of this while maintaining the highest level of security for your payments. Zaakpay is one of the most trusted payment gateways in India that offers a complete payment solution package designed to help D2C businesses.
In conclusion, when a consumer uses a Credit or Debit Card to make a purchase from a merchant’s store, the merchant’s bank account must pay interchange fees. While the concept of interchange may be perplexing, keep in mind that when you hear the phrase “Interchange,” it refers to the precise true cost to the processor that Visa or MasterCard charges every time a Credit Card transaction is processed.
A merchant account with reputable and credible payment gateways in India like Zaakpay, your transactions will be easier and more swift and secure. Interchange rates will be significantly reduced and it will automatically pick the best pricing options for your needs and utilise the best practises to avoid costly charge-backs and other penalties.