Interchange is the wholesale rate issued by Visa, Mastercard & Discover. They issue Interchange at the same cost to every processor. All merchant processing companies are on a level playing field when it comes to the rates. No one has a competitive advantage over us, nor does anyone have a competitive disadvantage. This means that our sales reps know with 100% certainty that they can match or beat almost any rate that they come across without even looking at a statement.
Interchange is made up of hundreds of rates that start as low as .90% on a swiped Visa debit card and go as high as 3.25% on a Mastercard World Elite Standard card. Most companies are taking these hundreds of rates and bulking them into three categories; Qualified, Mid-Qualified & Non-Qualified.
The Qualified rate for most of our competitors includes all swiped debit & standard credit cards. A competitive rate on a Qualified card is 1.69%
The Mid-Qualified rate includes all Key-Entered & Rewards cards. A competitive rate on a Mid-Qualified card is 2.50%
The Non-Qualified rate includes all Corporate & International cards. A competitive rate on a Non-Qualified card is 3.25%
Three tier rate structures do not favor the merchant because it drops hundreds of interchange categories that are spread evenly from .90% up to 3.25% into only three categories. For argument’s sake, let’s say that there are 300 interchange categories that are evenly distributed into the three rate categories. At 100 interchange rates per category, you will find that some of the interchange rates will land close to the Qualified category, and some that will land really far away. This type of rate structure results in the merchant getting a great deal on the cards that fall close to the Qualified category; and a really poor deal on the interchange categories that fall far away from the category.
Remember that we said that most of the competition is offering a three tier rate starting at 1.69%. In the qualified category above, you will see that when a merchant accepts a Visa debit card they are paying a markup of 79 basis points (0.79%). When the merchant accepts a CPS Retail Card, the merchant is paying a markup of 15 basis points (with cost being 1.54%) . A 79 point markup is very high, and a 15 point markup is very low.
Our pricing structure is call Interchange Plus pricing, which may also be referred to as Interchange Pass-Thru or Cost Plus. This means that we pass through the cost on interchange and add a standard “Discount Rate” on top of interchange. For example; A merchant has a rate of interchange plus 0.50%. A Visa Rewards I card costs us 1.65%, so the merchant would be charged 2.15% (1.65% Interchange plus the 0.50% Discount).
Some merchants will pay a lower discount fee, and some will pay a higher discount fee. The discount fee charged to the merchant will be determined at first by your sales manager, or for a client, by their rep.
Interchange Plus pricing is the most cost effective and efficient way to process credit card cards. The rate structure ensures that the merchant receives a fair deal on all card types, rather than a good deal on some and a bad deal on others. Interchange plus pricing is the same pricing structure that Wal-mart, Best Buy and McDonalds use to process their cards. Of course our merchants will not receive the same mark up as Wal-Mart, but it always makes them feel good to hear their business mentioned in the same breath as the big boys.
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1. Summary of all 
1. This is the summary of all of the interchange charges during the entire month of credit card processing. At first glance it may not be easy to see that all of the 
