Fee dictionary
23 fees, in plain English.
Every line you're likely to find on a processing statement — what it is, whether it's real cost or processor margin, and what a fair version looks like for a home-service contractor.
Pass-throughProcessor markupAvoidable
Interchange & assessments
Paid to the card brands and issuing banks. Real cost — no processor can waive it.
- Visa interchangeInterchange is what the customer's bank charges every time one of its cards is used.$783.27
- Mastercard interchangeSame idea as Visa interchange: the fee set by Mastercard and paid to the bank that issued the customer's card.$473.20
- Discover interchangeDiscover's version of interchange.$124.07
- American Express OptBlueOptBlue is how most small businesses accept American Express: your processor sets one combined rate that includes Amex's wholesale cost plus the processor's markup.$209.26
- Dues & assessmentsA small percentage the card brands themselves (Visa, Mastercard, Discover) charge on every transaction, separate from the interchange that goes to the issuing bank.$101.52
- Network access feesA handful of small card-brand fees with alphabet-soup names: Visa's Acquirer Processing Fee (APF) and Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF), Mastercard's Network Access and Brand Usage fee (NABU), and similar.$12.40
Processor fees
The processor's own margin. This is the part that is negotiable.
- Discount rate (processor markup)The percentage the processor adds on top of interchange for handling your transactions.$328.00
- Per-item transaction feeA flat few cents the processor charges on every sale, refund and (sometimes) decline, in addition to the percentage.$28.35
- Authorization feeCharged every time a card is checked with the bank, whether or not the sale goes through — so declines, voids and pre-authorizations all count.$20.40
Monthly & miscellaneous
Flat fees that show up every month whether you run a card or not.
- Statement feeA monthly charge for producing the statement you're reading, sometimes called a 'service fee' or 'account fee'.$7.95
- PCI compliance feePCI is the card industry's security standard, and processors are required to help merchants stay compliant.$19.95
- PCI non-compliance feeA monthly penalty for not completing your PCI self-assessment questionnaire — usually because nobody told you it existed, or the email went to a spam folder.$39.95
- Regulatory / product feeA vaguely named monthly charge that sounds like a government requirement and isn't.$14.95
- Batch header feeCharged each time your terminal or software 'closes the batch' — sends the day's transactions in for settlement.$5.50
- Gateway feeA monthly fee for the software that connects your invoicing tool, website or virtual terminal to the processor.$15.00
- Wireless / mobile terminal feeA monthly charge for a card reader that uses a cellular connection instead of Wi-Fi, common with techs and crews taking payment at the job site.$12.95
- Monthly minimumA floor on the processor's fees: if your markup for the month comes in under (say) $25, they charge the difference.$0.00
Downgrades & surcharges
Transactions that were charged a higher tier than they should have been.
- Non-qualified surchargeOn tiered pricing, every transaction is sorted into 'qualified', 'mid-qualified' or 'non-qualified' buckets, and the processor decides the rules.$312.40
- Mid-qualified surchargeThe middle tier on a tiered plan: transactions that didn't meet the processor's 'qualified' rules but weren't pushed all the way to non-qualified.$77.52
Contract terms
Not charges this month — but they decide what leaving costs you.
- Early termination feeWhat it costs to leave before the contract ends.terms
- Auto-renewal clauseThe three-year agreement quietly becomes another one-year agreement unless you cancel in writing during a narrow window — commonly 30 to 90 days before the term ends.terms
- Terminal leaseA separate, non-cancellable lease for a card terminal, usually billed by a leasing company rather than the processor so it never appears on this statement.terms
- Annual feeA once-a-year charge, often billed in January or on your anniversary month, for nothing in particular — it is sometimes labeled a 'membership' or 'account maintenance' fee.terms
See them all in context
The Statement Decoder shows every one of these on a real-looking statement.
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