Credit card processing fees: interchange, markup and monthly fees, with the published numbers

Interchange goes to the bank that issued your customer's card. The card networks publish it, and it is the largest layer. Network fees (also called assessments) go to Visa or Mastercard. Markup is what your processor keeps, and it is the only layer a processor can actually price for you.

Here is what interchange alone costs on one $40 in-person sale, using Visa's table effective April 18, 2026 [1] and Mastercard's table effective April 17, 2026 [2]. Network fees are not in these tables, so they are not included.

The spread is the point. The same $40 sale costs from 24 cents to $1.02 in interchange, before anyone adds a markup. That is why two shops with the same sales can get very different statements.

Card networks charge more when the card is not in front of you, because fraud risk is higher. They also charge more when a sale is missing data the network expects. Your processor cannot change these rates, but how you take the payment can.

• Tap or dip the card whenever the customer is there. Typing in a card number moves the sale into a higher row.
• Settle your batch every day. Late settlement is a common reason a sale drops into a non-qualified rate.
• For online sales, send the full address and security data your gateway asks for.

Processors sell the same interchange three ways. A flat rate hides interchange inside one price. Interchange-plus shows interchange at cost and adds a stated markup. A subscription model charges interchange at cost, a small per-sale fee and a monthly membership. Here is what several processors list on their own pricing pages today.

Helcim publishes a markup that falls as volume rises, from 0.40% + 8¢ under $50,000 a month to 0.15% + 6¢ at $1 million to $5 million [5]. Stax lists $139 a month for $150,000 to $250,000 a year and $199 and up above that [6]. Tiered pricing (qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified buckets) is not posted by any of these processors, which is itself a reason to ask for the bucket rules in writing.

A low percentage can come with fees that show up only on the statement. These are the ones the processors above publish. Anything not on a pricing page should be in your contract before you sign.

Clover's own FAQ says its hardware subscriptions are non-cancelable and that contract terms and termination fees vary by the bank or company that sold you the account [7]. If a Clover device came from your bank, the bank's agreement sets those terms, not the Clover website.

Take a New Jersey shop with $25,000 a month in in-person card sales and a $40 average sale, so 625 sales a month. Here is the processing cost at published prices, before any monthly software fee.

Read the last three rows together. If every customer paid with a basic credit card, interchange-plus at Helcim would come to about $590 a month plus network fees. If every customer carried a top rewards card, it would be about $788. Real shops sit in between, and debit sales pull the number down. That is why your own card mix, not a headline, decides which price is lower. The fee analyzer runs this with your numbers.

1. Add up every fee on last month's statement and divide by your card sales. That is your effective rate.
2. Find the pricing model. If you see interchange lines and a separate markup, you are on interchange-plus. One rate on every sale means flat rate. Words like "qualified" and "non-qualified" mean tiered.
3. List every monthly and annual fee, and match each one to a service you use.
4. Compare quotes on markup plus monthly fees, and get the term, exit fee and any equipment lease in writing.

Our guides walk through each step: how to read a merchant statement and interchange-plus vs flat rate. Thinking about passing fees to customers? New Jersey caps a credit card surcharge at your actual cost; see merchant services in NJ.