Interchange Fee Explained: 2026 Rates, Examples and Rule Changes

An interchange fee is the amount your customer's card issuer collects on every card sale you accept. Your acquirer pays it to the issuer and passes the cost to you inside your processing fees. On most credit card sales, it is the largest single part of the cost.

What Is an Interchange Fee?

Interchange is a per-transaction fee paid by the merchant's bank to the cardholder's bank. Visa describes interchange reimbursement fees as transfer fees between acquiring banks and issuing banks. The issuer receives it. You never pay the issuer directly.

Here is the flow in one sentence. The issuer pays your acquirer the sale amount minus interchange, and your acquirer pays you minus its own fees. If the bank roles are new to you, read our guide to acquirer vs issuer first.

Most interchange rates combine a percentage and a fixed amount, such as 1.43% + $0.10. On a $100 sale, that rate costs $1.53.

Who Gets Paid When a Customer Pays by Card?

Three parties take a share of each card payment. Interchange goes to the issuer. Network fees go to Visa or Mastercard. The markup goes to your acquirer or processor.

So merchant interchange fees are only one of three layers, and only the last one is open to negotiation. The merchant acquirer vs payment processor split decides who bills you for it. Many small businesses buy all three layers as one bundle from a payment service provider.

How Are Interchange Rates Set?

Visa and Mastercard publish U.S. interchange tables and typically update them in April and October. Visa's current table took effect on October 24, 2026 and kept its April 18, 2026 rates for the rows below. Mastercard's current table took effect on April 17, 2026. Your rate on any sale depends on several factors:

• Card type: premium rewards and commercial cards cost more than basic cards.
• Debit or credit: debit from large issuers is capped by federal rule.
• Card present or not: online and keyed sales cost more than chip or tap.
• Merchant category code (MCC): some industries get their own rates.
• Data quality: missing data or late presentment can push a sale to a higher rate.

Sources: Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees (October 24, 2026) and Mastercard 2026 to 2027 U.S. rates (April 17, 2026), linked above. The same customer can cost you very different amounts. A tapped basic card costs far less than a keyed premium card.

What Is the Average Interchange Fee?

No network publishes one average credit rate. Qualified consumer credit in the current Visa and Mastercard tables runs from 1.43% + $0.10 to 2.60% + $0.10. Non-qualified sales reach 3.15% + $0.10.

Debit has official averages. The Federal Reserve's 2024 data, updated December 19, 2025, shows these figures:

That gap is why debit from big banks is often your cheapest card payment.

How Does Regulation II Cap Debit Interchange?

Regulation II caps debit interchange for issuers with $10 billion or more in assets. The rule in 12 CFR Part 235 sets the cap at 21 cents plus 0.05% of the sale. Issuers that meet fraud-prevention standards can add 1 cent.

On a $50 debit sale, the cap works out to 24.5 cents. Smaller issuers are exempt. The rule also requires two unaffiliated networks on each debit card. That gives you routing choice, including PINless debit networks for online sales.

Is the Debit Cap Changing?

Yes, but not yet. The status as of November 10, 2026 is below.

• Proposed cut: on October 25, 2023, the Fed proposed 14.4 cents + 0.04% + a 1.3-cent fraud adjustment. It had not been finalized as of November 10, 2026.
• Court ruling: on August 6, 2025, a North Dakota federal court held the cap exceeded the Durbin Amendment in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve. It stayed its order during appeal.
• Appeal: the Eighth Circuit affirmed on October 26, 2026 in Corner Post, Inc. v. Board of Governors (No. 25-3000). It held the cap counted costs the Durbin Amendment does not allow, such as fixed costs. It sent the rule back to the Fed to set a new standard.
• When it takes effect: the ruling applies only once the court issues its mandate. That follows the 45-day window to seek rehearing. Until then, the current cap stays in effect.
• Second case: a Kentucky court upheld the rule in Linney's Pizza. The Sixth Circuit heard argument on October 22, 2026 and had not ruled as of November 10, 2026.

For now, budget on 21 cents + 0.05% + 1 cent. Do not plan around a lower cap until the Fed finalizes one.

Do American Express and Discover Charge Interchange?

Not in the same way. Visa and Mastercard are four-party networks. The issuer and the acquirer are separate banks, and interchange moves between them. American Express and Discover can act as the network and the issuer on the same sale.

On a direct American Express account, you pay Amex one discount rate. There is no separate interchange line. Smaller merchants usually take Amex through OptBlue. Amex sets the wholesale rates, and your processor adds its own markup. The program is generally for businesses with under $1 million a year in Amex volume.

So ask your processor how it bills Amex. On OptBlue, you can compare the markup the same way you do for Visa and Mastercard.

How Do US Interchange Fees Compare With the EU and UK?

US credit interchange has no legal cap, so it runs well above European levels. The EU Interchange Fee Regulation caps consumer debit at 0.2% of the sale and consumer credit at 0.3%. The UK kept the same caps for domestic consumer cards, per the Payment Systems Regulator.

The UK caps apply only when the merchant, the acquirer and the issuer are all in the UK. A US-issued card used at a UK store falls outside them. If you sell abroad, our guide to cross-border payments covers the added fees.

Interchange-Plus vs Flat-Rate Pricing: Which Costs Less?

Interchange-plus passes interchange and network fees through at cost and adds a set markup. Flat-rate pricing charges one blended rate on every card. Stripe's standard U.S. online rate is 2.9% + 30 cents, with interchange-plus offered on custom plans for larger volume.

Choose interchange-plus when you process steady volume and want to see each fee. Flat rate is enough when volume is small or your mix is mostly premium online credit cards.

Interchange Fee Example: One $100 Online Order

This worked example is illustrative. Interchange uses Visa's card-not-present rates from its October 24, 2026 table. The network fee and markup are made-up figures, not published rates.

On a flat 2.9% + 30 cents plan, every row costs $3.20. The debit sale is far cheaper on interchange-plus. The premium card is cheaper on flat rate.

How Do Chargebacks Add to the Cost of a Card Sale?

A chargeback costs far more than its interchange. You lose the sale amount and pay a dispute fee. You also usually keep paying the fees on the original sale.

Check what your own processor charges. Two published examples:

• Stripe: a $15 dispute fee plus a $15 counter fee in the U.S. for disputes opened after June 17, 2025. Stripe returns the counter fee if you win, but never returns the received fee unless your contract says otherwise.
• PayPal: a $20 card chargeback fee, or a $15 dispute fee ($30 at high volume) on PayPal checkout disputes. PayPal says refunds do not return the fees you paid on the original sale.

Stripe also says its processing fees are not returned on refunds. Neither provider's pages describe returning processing fees on a lost dispute. Our chargeback fees guide compares more processors, and the Stripe chargeback fee guide covers Stripe in depth.

Cost of One Lost Chargeback (Illustrative)

The interchange inside that $3.20 is about $2. The dispute costs many times more. That is why your dispute rate matters more than chasing a few basis points of interchange.

High dispute counts also bring network scrutiny. Visa's VAMP program sets a 1.5% excessive threshold for U.S. merchants, counting both fraud reports and disputes. Track your chargeback ratio monthly, and see the true cost of chargebacks for a wider view.

{{cta}}

What Can You Control to Lower Interchange Costs?

You cannot change the rate tables. You can change which rate each sale qualifies for and how many sales turn into disputes.

Online sellers face the most card not present fraud, so screening pays off twice. It cuts fraud losses and the disputes that follow. Our ecommerce fraud prevention guide covers the controls.

Surcharging is another option, with limits. Visa says a credit surcharge cannot exceed your cost of acceptance or 3%, and debit and prepaid cards cannot be surcharged. State laws add their own rules.

Interchange Fee News: What Legal Changes Affect Rates in 2025 and 2026?

Four legal tracks could change what you pay. None has cut credit interchange yet. Here is the dated timeline.

What Is the Interchange Fee Settlement?

The interchange fee settlement is a proposed class deal between Visa, Mastercard and U.S. merchants that would cut and cap some credit interchange. Visa's November 10, 2025 SEC filing lists the terms. They include a 10-basis-point cut to average U.S. credit interchange for five years. Standard consumer credit rates would be capped at 1.25% for eight years.

Merchants could also surcharge more freely and decline some premium or commercial cards. Judge Brian Cogan granted preliminary approval on June 9, 2026. Walmart and retail trade groups object, and the final approval hearing is set for November 16, 2026. Nothing changes until final approval.

As of November 10, 2026, the deal has preliminary approval only. If the court approves it, the cut lowers interchange, not your processor's markup. Whether you see the savings depends on how you are priced:

This settlement pays no cash. The separate $5.5 billion damages settlement covers merchants that accepted cards from 2004 to January 25, 2019. Claims closed in February 2025. As of an October 2026 filing, it had paid about $631.7 million to 689,340 merchants, with payouts based on each claimant's share.

What Is the Illinois Interchange Fee Prohibition Act?

The Illinois law bans interchange on the sales tax and tip part of a card sale. In the session that ended June 1, 2026, lawmakers passed a bill to delay it again (SB 3645), to July 1, 2027. The bill needs the governor's signature. As of November 10, 2026, we could not confirm a signing in a primary source.

A federal court has blocked it for national banks, federal savings associations, out-of-state banks and card networks.

A September 22, 2026 ruling extended that block to federal credit unions. Illinois state banks and state credit unions are still covered. If you sell in Illinois, ask your processor how it plans to handle tax and tip amounts.

The law can reach a sale only when all three of these apply:

• The sale takes place in Illinois.
• The issuer is not covered by the court's block, such as an Illinois state bank or state credit union.
• The amount is sales tax or a tip; the rest of the sale still carries interchange.

What Is the Credit Card Competition Act?

The Credit Card Competition Act of 2026 would require routing choice on credit cards, similar to debit. The Senate passed a housing bill on March 12, 2026 without the CCCA attached. As of November 10, 2026, it sits in the Senate Banking Committee and has not passed either chamber.

Interchange Is Set by the Networks, Your Dispute Costs Are Not

Interchange is a fixed cost per card type, and the legal fights over it move slowly. Your own lever is the mix of sales and disputes. Clean data, card-present payments and fewer chargebacks lower what each sale really costs.

When disputes still arrive, respond to each one. Automated chargeback alerts can stop some before they become chargebacks, and automated chargeback recovery handles the rest. Each sale also passes through several credit card transaction types, and each one leaves evidence you can use.

{{cta}}

Perguntas frequentes

Who pays interchange fees?

The merchant pays them, through the acquirer. The acquirer pays interchange to the card issuer and charges it back to the merchant inside processing fees. Cardholders do not pay interchange directly.

Who makes money on interchange fees?

The card issuer keeps the interchange. Visa and Mastercard earn separate network fees, and your acquirer or processor earns its markup.

Who sets interchange fees?

Card networks such as Visa and Mastercard set the rate tables. Federal Regulation II caps debit interchange for issuers with $10 billion or more in assets. Acquirers cannot change interchange, only their own markup.

What is the average interchange fee?

For U.S. debit in 2024, the Fed reports $0.23 per covered transaction, $0.51 per exempt one and $0.34 across all debit. Qualified consumer credit in the current Visa and Mastercard tables runs from about 1.43% to 2.60% plus $0.10.

Is it illegal to charge 3% on a debit card?

Visa rules do not allow surcharges on debit or prepaid cards. Credit surcharges are capped at your cost of acceptance or 3% under Visa rules. Some states restrict surcharges further.

How much will I get from the payment card interchange fee settlement?

Payouts from the $5.5 billion damages settlement are pro rata, based on each claimant's card acceptance from 2004 to January 25, 2019. Claims closed in February 2025. The newer 2025 settlement pays no cash; it changes rates and rules if approved.

Is a check from the payment card interchange fee settlement legit?

It can be. Payments from the $5.5 billion damages settlement come through the court-appointed Class Administrator. Before you deposit a check or share data, confirm it on the official settlement site or its phone line, 1-800-625-6440.

Do you get interchange back when you refund a sale?

Usually not on flat-rate plans. Stripe and PayPal both say the fees on the original sale are not returned on refunds. On interchange-plus contracts, check your statement and agreement.

Does American Express charge interchange fees?

Not as a separate line on a direct account. American Express charges merchants a discount rate. On the OptBlue program, Amex sets wholesale rates and your processor adds a markup, much like interchange-plus pricing.

What is the interchange fee cap in Europe?

The EU caps interchange on consumer cards at 0.2% for debit and 0.3% for credit. The UK applies the same caps to domestic consumer card payments. The US has no cap on credit interchange.

Last reviewed: November 10, 2026.