What Are Interchange Fees?

Read this first: Understanding Interchange Plus

When a customer pays with a debit or credit card, the bank that issued the card gets a cut of the transaction. This is called the interchange fee (or "wholesale" processing fee). It's meant to cover the banks' operation costs and risk of fraud.

Interchange fees make up the bulk of your total credit card processing fees.

There are different rates for different types of cards and transaction categories.

Unfortunately, interchange fees are set by the card associations (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and American Express) and are not negotiable. 

Each card association has its own schedule of interchange fees: Interchange Plus Rates by Card Brand.