Card-not-present rates: why online costs more than in store
On a $75 order, interchange runs from about 26¢ on a large bank's debit card to about $2.05 on a premium Visa or Mastercard [1][2], and each chargeback adds a fee (Stripe charges $15 [3]) plus a mark against dispute limits that can cost you your account [6]. Card networks charge more when the card is not physically present, because the risk of fraud is higher. Visa's basic credit card is 1.51% + 10¢ tapped in a store and 1.89% + 10¢ online; a Visa Signature Preferred card is 2.10% + 10¢ in store and 2.50% + 10¢ online [1]. Mastercard's online and key-entered credit rows run from 1.95% + 10¢ on Core cards to 2.60% + 10¢ on World Elite cards [2].
Debit costs less online too, but still more than in store. For smaller banks, Visa's e-commerce basic debit rate is 1.65% + 15¢, with a slightly lower 1.60% + 15¢ for retail sales that qualify as e-commerce preferred [1]. Debit cards from large banks stay at 0.05% + 21¢, plus 1¢, online or off [1].
Smaller sellers can qualify for Visa's Small Merchant program, which lists basic credit online at 1.58% + 10¢ for businesses with $280,000 or less in Visa consumer credit sales [1]. Platform flat rates do not pass that through; interchange-plus pricing can.
What the major platforms publish
| Platform | Standard online rate | Extra charges to know |
|---|---|---|
| Stripe | 2.9% + 30¢ [3] | +0.5% for manually entered cards, +1.5% for international cards [3] |
| Shopify Payments, Basic plan ($29 a month, billed yearly) | 2.9% + 30¢; 3.5% + 30¢ on premium cards [4] | +1% international; 2% fee if you use a third-party processor instead [4] |
| Square Online, Plus or Premium plan | 2.9% + 30¢ [7] | 3.3% + 30¢ on the Free plan [7] |
| PayPal Checkout | 3.49% + 49¢ [5] | Standard card payments through PayPal are 2.99% + 49¢ [5] |
On Shopify, using Shopify Payments avoids the 2% third-party transaction fee on the Basic plan [4]. If you offer PayPal as an extra button, know that each PayPal Checkout order costs more than a card through Stripe or Shopify: $3.11 against $2.48 on a $75 order [3][5].
1,000 orders a month at $75
At 2.9% + 30¢, fees are $2,475 a month, or 3.3% of sales [3].
If 20% of those orders go through PayPal Checkout instead, that slice costs $621.50 instead of $495, about $126.50 more a month [5].
Interchange-plus pricing on the same orders would pass through debit at a fraction of the cost, but adds a markup and monthly fees to compare.
Tokens and authentication lower both fraud and interchange
Visa lowers online interchange for safer payments. Its card-not-present rows carry incentives that subtract 0.05% for transactions using an EMV token, 0.10% for transactions authenticated through Visa's Digital Commerce Authentication Program, and 0.15% for both [1]. On $75,000 a month in qualifying sales, the top incentive is worth about $112.50.
- Turn on network tokens for saved cards if your platform supports them.
- Use 3-D Secure or similar authentication on orders that look risky, not on every order, so good customers are not slowed down.
- Use address and security code checks, and hold orders whose shipping address does not match the card.
- Stripe's Radar fraud screening starts at $0.05 per screened transaction on its pay-as-you-go plan [3].
Chargebacks: the fee, and the limits that matter more
A chargeback costs the sale and a fee. Stripe charges $15.00 for each dispute you receive and another $15.00 if you respond manually, which it refunds if you win [3]. Other processors charge similar fees.
The bigger risk is the ratio. Visa's monitoring program counts card-not-present fraud reports plus disputes, divided by settled sales; a U.S. merchant is Excessive at 1.5% or more with at least 1,500 reports in a month, a threshold that dropped from 2.2% on April 1, 2026 [6]. Disputes resolved through pre-dispute services are left out of that ratio [6], which is one reason dispute alert tools are worth asking about. Mastercard's terminated merchant list uses a chargeback rate above 1% with $5,000 or more in a month [8]. A business added to that list stays on it for 5 years [8].
- Use a billing descriptor customers recognize: your store name, not a parent company.
- Ship with tracking and keep proof of delivery.
- Make refunds easy. A refund is cheaper than a chargeback.
- Respond to every dispute with order, delivery and communication records.
New Jersey online sellers
New Jersey had 1,736 electronic shopping and mail-order establishments with paid employees in 2023 [9]. Stores, restaurants and service businesses that also sell online pay the same card-not-present rates on those sales.
BatchOut is our own processing service and works with online sellers. If we show it to you, it is labeled as ours and sits next to Stripe, Shopify Payments and other options.