Interchange-Plus vs. Flat-Rate Merchant Account

USBSwiper offers 2 different rate / pricing structures for you to choose from in order to give you the most flexibility in determining which account is best for your business: Interchange-Plus Pricing and Flat Rate Pricing.

 

Interchange-Plus Merchant Account - Powered by PayLeap

Interchange-Plus gives you the most competitive rate structure for accepting credit cards because it is based on the actual credit card accepted as well as the transaction classification type (card present vs. card not present, etc.)

This account takes the actual rates that Visa/MC/Discover charge (called Interchange Rates) and adds a fixed margin to them to arrive at the rate you pay for each transaction.  Interchange rates vary dramatically based on the type of credit card given to you by the customer as well as if there are any rewards attached to that card (i.e. Airline Miles).  The bigger the reward given to your customer for using that card, the higher the Interchange rate you will pay for processing that transaction.

Based on different types of credit cards, the rates for this account can vary anywhere from 1.48% to 3.645% per transaction. The fewer "non-qualified" credit cards you process, the lower your overall rate will be.

Other variables that go into the calculation of the rates you pay will be risk factor add-ons for situations such as whether or not the card was presented in front of you (Card Present vs. Card-Not-Present transaction or phoned in), whether or not the card was “Swiped” or Manually Entered. 

At the end of the month, you will receive a statement outlining all the different types of cards and transaction types that you accepted in that month and the accompanying rates and fees that were associated with those transactions.

 

Flat Rate Merchant Account - Powered by PayPal Virtual Terminal / Payments Pro

This pricing eliminates the task of calculating what your average monthly costs are for credit card processing.  It is hassle free in that you always know what your rate is for every transaction whether card present vs. card not present or qualified vs. non-qualified transactions as discussed above.  This structure may be more or less beneficial than Interchange-Plus pricing because if you take more non-qualified transactions or more card-not-present transactions with the Interchange-Plus pricing, your actual rate on Interchange-Plus could be higher than the flat rate pricing and vice versa.