Interchange-Plus Pricing Explained: Why It Saves You Money

If you accept credit cards, you are paying interchange fees whether you realize it or not. The difference is whether your processor is transparent about it or hiding it inside a flat rate.

Interchange fees are set by the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express) and vary based on card type, transaction method, and merchant category. A rewards credit card costs more to process than a basic debit card. A card-present tap costs less than a manually keyed-in transaction.

With flat-rate pricing (like Stripe's 2.9% + 30¢ or Square's 2.6% + 10¢), you pay the same rate regardless of the actual interchange cost. That means when a customer uses a low-cost debit card, you are still paying the premium rate. The processor pockets the difference.

Interchange-plus pricing works differently. Your processor passes through the actual interchange cost set by the card network and adds a small, fixed markup on top. So if the interchange cost on a transaction is 1.5%, and your markup is 0.3%, you pay 1.8% — not 2.9%.

For most businesses processing more than $10,000 per month, interchange-plus pricing results in significant savings. The more volume you process, the bigger the gap between what you would pay on flat rate versus interchange-plus.

At Optec Payments, every merchant gets transparent interchange-plus pricing with no hidden fees. We also offer a flat rate of 2.9% + 20¢ for businesses that prefer simplicity — still 10¢ less per transaction than Stripe. Request a free rate analysis to see exactly how much you could save.