With more consumers using credit cards to pay for products and services, it can be detrimental to your business not to accept them. While accepting credit cards provides consumers with a convenient payment method and can make your business more consumer-friendly, these benefit come at a cost. All credit card payments are processed through a merchant credit card processing company, and just like any other company, they’re in business to make money. For every credit card sale you make, there is an interchange fee. Those fees begin to add up, taking a bite out of your profits.

These interchange fees vary depending on the type of card used. Debit, credit, business, or rewards cards – they all have different interchange fees and they often change. The Visa/ Mastercard company adjusts their rates twice a year, in April and October. There are also two types of fee structures. One charges fess per transaction, and the other charges a flat monthly rate. There are many factors to consider when trying to keep your credit card processing fees to a minimum. Trying to make sense of them all can be overwhelming.