Reviewed by Mayer Hyman, Payments Specialist | Reviewed for accuracy July 1, 2026
Key Takeaways
- Visa and Mastercard adjust interchange rates periodically, and adjustments don’t move in one direction: some categories go up while others, like small transactions and qualifying small businesses, go down.
- Interchange fees exist to offset the risk card networks and issuing banks take on when processing card transactions, and the exact fee depends on card type, transaction type, and business category.
- You can’t eliminate interchange fees, but keeping fraud-prevention tools current, like 3D Secure 2.0, automated fraud screening, and portable card readers, helps keep your effective rate down.
- A processor that tracks these changes for you, and offers transparent pricing like interchange-plus, matters more than any single rate adjustment.
Interchange rates aren’t fixed. Visa, Mastercard, and other card networks revisit and adjust their rate schedules on a regular cycle, and the changes rarely move in a single direction. Some categories see increases while others see decreases in the same update cycle, which makes “are rates going up or down” the wrong question. The better question is what determines your rate, and what you can do about it.
Why Do Interchange Rates Move in Both Directions at Once?
Card networks periodically revise fee schedules across dozens of categories at a time, and updates typically raise some rates while lowering others. Large merchants processing high-risk or rewards-heavy card types tend to feel increases more, while small businesses and low-dollar transactions are more often the categories that see relief. Because updates are granular and category-specific, whether your business is affected, and in which direction, depends entirely on your transaction mix.
What Determines the Interchange Fee You Actually Pay?
Interchange fees exist to offset the risk banks and card networks take on when they process a credit or debit card transaction. The fee you’re charged depends on a combination of factors: the type of card used (debit, standard credit, or premium rewards), whether the transaction is card-present or card-not-present, your merchant category, and the fraud risk profile of the transaction. These same factors are why two businesses in different industries can pay very different effective rates even when processing similar dollar volumes. If you also want to understand how pricing models like interchange-plus pass these rates through to you, that’s the natural next piece of the puzzle.
How Can You Lower Your Effective Interchange Cost?
You can’t opt out of interchange fees, but you can influence which rate category your transactions fall into, mainly by reducing fraud risk and keeping card-present transactions properly authenticated. A few tools make a real difference:
3D Secure 2.0 (3DS2)
3DS2 is an industry authentication protocol that adds a layer of protection to card-not-present transactions by verifying the customer’s identity through two-factor authentication. Using it strengthens security for online transactions and helps route them into lower-risk, lower-fee categories instead of the higher-cost non-qualified bucket.
Automated Fraud Screening
Automated fraud-detection services screen and verify transactions within seconds, flagging anything that fails automatic verification for manual review. Catching fraud before it settles keeps your chargeback rate down, which matters for both your processing costs and your standing with card networks.
Portable Card Readers
If you interact with customers away from a fixed terminal, at a market stall, a pop-up, or a service call, a handheld card reader lets you swipe or tap the card at the moment of the transaction instead of keying in payment details afterward. Card-present, properly authenticated transactions consistently qualify for lower interchange rates than keyed-in ones.
Your Partner for Managing Interchange Costs
Cartis Payments is a payment processing provider, not a card network, so we don’t set interchange rates. What we do is track how rate changes affect your transaction mix and make sure your pricing model, whether that’s interchange-plus or another structure, passes those changes through transparently instead of burying them in a bucket rate. Combined with how you’re funded, whether that’s net or gross daily deposits, these pieces determine your real cost of accepting cards.
FAQ
Do interchange rates always go up?
No. Card networks revise rates across many categories at once, and updates typically raise some rates while lowering others, depending on card type, transaction size, and merchant category.
Why do interchange fees vary between businesses?
Interchange rates depend on the card type used, whether the transaction is card-present or card-not-present, the merchant’s business category, and the transaction’s fraud risk profile. Two businesses with similar sales volume can have very different effective rates.
Can I reduce how much I pay in interchange fees?
You can’t eliminate interchange fees, but using tools like 3D Secure 2.0, automated fraud screening, and card-present authentication (like a portable card reader) can help transactions qualify for lower-risk, lower-cost rate categories.
How do I know if a recent rate change affects my business?
It depends on your specific transaction mix, card types, and industry category. Contact Cartis Payments to review how current interchange rates apply to your business.
