Grocery stores get some of the best interchange rates in the system. Convenience and specialty food stores don't. The line between them is one digit on your merchant account.
Your Merchant Category Code decides which interchange rates you qualify for. Here's how to find yours, what the common codes mean, and why the wrong one quietly costs you money.
Your Merchant Category Code determines which interchange tier you fall into. If it's wrong, you could be paying more than you should.
Interchange is the biggest chunk of what you pay to accept cards. Here's who controls it, how it's calculated, and why your processor can't lower it.
If you sell to businesses or government agencies, sending additional transaction data can slash your interchange rate. Here's how.
The same debit card can cost you two different rates depending on whether the customer enters a PIN. Here's which is cheaper and why.
The same card can cost you two different rates depending on whether it's physically present at checkout — and the gap can be 40% or more.
A 2010 federal law capped debit card interchange at about 0.05% + $0.22 — so why is your debit processing still expensive? The answer is in your pricing model.