When referring to the percentage merchants pay for accepting credit card transactions, Visa and Mastercard use the phrase “Interchange Rate”. American Express uses the phrase “Discount Rate” when referring to their processing fees, which can be misleading. Instead of giving merchants a discount for particular purchases, they are actually taking a larger percentage of the purchase than most credit card processors. As American Express works as a closed loop system (dispersing their own cards, authorizing and settling payments), they set their fees at high price rates for whatever they can get away with in our current economy.
Credit Card Processing: Level 3 Interchange
A key aspect of credit card processing fees which can affect a merchant who sells to other businesses (B2B) is the interchange level of the selling merchant. This is different than transactional interchange rates, which …