Most of your card fee is not markup. See the three layers.
When a customer pays by card, your fee splits three ways: interchange to the bank that issued the card, dues and assessments to the networks, and markup to your provider. Only the markup is negotiable — and on a flat rate it is the one layer you cannot see. This calculator prices all three from the published schedules and shows every line.
Your numbers
No name needed. We don't sell this data. The math runs in your browser — your numbers aren't sent anywhere.
Flat rate
Default: Stripe Standard — Stripe's published standard online rate (2.9% + $0.30). Type your own provider's rate if it differs.
Interchange-plus markup
Default: 0.30% + $0.10 — an assumption, mid-range for small businesses. It is not a quote. Type the markup on your own statement if you have one.
Your cost, layer by layer
Flat rate Your current model
·
| Interchange (to the issuing bank) | |
| Dues & assessments (to the networks) | |
| Markup hidden inside the flat rate |
Interchange-plus Your current model
·
| Interchange (to the issuing bank) | |
| Dues & assessments (to the networks) | |
| Markup (to your provider) |
The math
Assumptions printed with the results
Schedule editions: Visa USA interchange, effective April 18, 2026; Mastercard U.S. interchange, 2025–2026 edition (effective April 11, 2025) — a newer Mastercard edition exists; we label ours honestly.
Network mix assumption: Visa 60% / Mastercard 40% of Visa/Mastercard volume.
Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF) is estimated with a tiered approximation on monthly Visa volume (the FANF-style tiers in the data below), plus a Mastercard location fee of $1.25 per month. One location is assumed.
United States domestic cards only. Excludes American Express and Discover, chargebacks, Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance, software, gateway, and hardware fees.
Qualification at the named program — no downgrades are modeled. A transaction that misses the program's data, timing, or security rules can clear at a much higher standard rate.
Your actual merchant category code (MCC) can place you in a different program; the industry you pick here maps to the program in the math table.
Rates are summarized from the published network tables — linked under Sources below, never hosted here. Where a program publishes no separate rate for a card class or channel, the calculator falls back to that category's card-present rate, then to the retail program, and the data notes every fallback and interpolation.
What the ticket size does
Per-transaction stack only — the monthly fixed network fees above are excluded here, on purpose, so you can see the cents do the work.
| Average ticket | Interchange-plus per sale | Interchange-plus effective rate | Flat rate per sale | Flat effective rate |
The three layers of every card fee
Interchange goes to the bank that issued your customer's card. Its level is set by the networks — Visa and Mastercard publish the tables — and it changes with the card used, the channel, and the program your transactions clear under. Your provider cannot change it.
Dues and assessments go to the networks themselves: a small percent of each sale, a couple of cents per transaction, and monthly network fees. They are the cost of the rails, and they are the same on any honest pass-through statement.
Markup is the only layer your provider sets — and the only negotiable one. On a flat rate, the three layers are blended into one number, so you cannot see the markup. On interchange-plus, the layers are itemized, so you can.
Why your average ticket changes your rate
Every layer carries fixed cents per transaction, and fixed cents divided by the ticket equals percentage points: $0.22 of fixed cost is 4.4 points on a $5 sale, 0.88 points on a $25 sale, and 0.22 points on a $100 sale. The percent barely moves. The cents decide.
One credit sale, three ticket sizes — an illustration
| Average ticket | Interchange-plus | Flat rate |
| $5 | $0.33 · 6.53% | $0.45 · 8.90% |
| $25 | $0.74 · 2.98% | $1.03 · 4.10% |
| $100 | $2.31 · 2.31% | $3.20 · 3.20% |
Illustration, not your quote: card-present consumer credit, interchange 1.65% + $0.10, network fees 0.14% + $0.022, markup 0.30% + $0.10 — a stack of 2.09% + $0.222 — against a flat 2.9% + $0.30. Monthly fixed network fees are excluded.
Who assigns your merchant category code (MCC)
Your acquirer assigns the MCC at onboarding — or its agent does: your processor, an independent sales organization (ISO), or a payment facilitator (PayFac). You do not pick it.
The code selects the interchange program your transactions clear under. A wrong code costs money quietly, every month: a grocery coded as general retail loses the supermarket programs on both networks. Verify your code on your statement, and ask your acquirer if it does not match what your business actually is.
How the markup layer evolved
Independent sales organizations (ISOs) sold other banks' merchant accounts and earned residuals — a monthly share of the markup, for the life of the account. The higher the markup, the larger the pool to split, which is one reason old pricing was so hard to read.
Payment facilitators (PayFacs) became the master merchant themselves: a PayFac underwrites its sub-merchants, takes the risk, handles funding and chargebacks, and keeps the spread. That is the Square and Stripe style of instant onboarding — no separate merchant account to apply for.
Infrastructure platforms let the software a business already uses take that share for real technology value. Stripe Connect does it on Stripe's rails; Finix's payment-facilitator-as-a-service does it with Finix holding the network registration while the platform sets merchant pricing. At each step the technology — and the liability — moved closer to the point of sale.
Sources
Interchange summarized from Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees (effective April 18, 2026) and Mastercard U.S. Region Interchange Programs and Rates, 2025–2026 edition (effective April 11, 2025). Networks update these tables in April and October — check the edition before you rely on a number. Assessment figures follow published network-fee schedules summarized in the research behind this page; the monthly Visa tier is a FANF-style approximation, labeled as such wherever it is used.
Visa USA interchange (official Portable Document Format (PDF)) · Mastercard U.S. interchange, 2025–2026 (official PDF)
Prefer a human?
Book a human AI builder behind the Pleitez AI agent team — $1,000/hr. That could be Emanuel, or someone of his caliber or better.
Book a human AI builder