October 2017 Interchange Fee Increases & Decreases

By Phillip Parker

Last Updated: October 10, 2017

Your Fees May Have Gone Up!

Every April and October, Visa and MasterCard adjust their interchange fees (the base fees for accepting all credit and debit cards). If you are currently on an interchange-plus pricing plan, this will impact the rates you pay on certain transactions. Some of your rates may have gone up, some may have gone down, and some new interchange classifications have been added that may now apply to you.

Wells Fargo has prepared an incredibly useful matrix that outlines the new interchange rates and highlights which fees have been adjusted. These changes are active as of October 13, 2017, and they can be expected to last until mid-April 2018 barring a rare January update from one of the card networks. In an effort to spare you the effort of browsing through 95 pages of interchange fees, we’ve summarized the updated fees below. Note: if an interchange fee is not mentioned in this summary, it has not been changed since April 2017.

Visa Interchange Adjustments October 2017

Below are the updated interchange fees for Visa card types as of October 2017. See the bottom of this section for a general summary of these changes.

Visa Interchange Fee Increases

All Commercial Card Level III interchange fees have increased from 1.85% plus $0.10 per transaction to 1.90% plus $0.10 per transaction
Level II Corporate Card interchange fees have increased from 2.05% plus $0.10 per transaction to 2.50% plus $0.10 per transaction
Level II Purchasing Card interchange fees have increased from 2.05% plus $0.10 per transaction to 2.50% plus $0.10 per transaction
Card-Not-Present Corporate Card interchange fees have increased from 2.65% plus $0.10 per transaction to 2.70% plus $0.10 per transaction
Card-Not-Present Purchasing Card interchange fees have increased from 2.65% plus $0.10 per transaction to 2.70% plus $0.10 per transaction
All Commercial – Travel Services interchange fees have increased from 2.55% plus $0.10 to 2.65% plus $0.10

Visa Interchange Fee Decreases

Visa did not lower any of its interchange rates during this update.

New Visa Interchange Fees

A Level II “Corporate @ Fuel” interchange rate of 2.05% plus $0.10 per transaction has been added
A Level II “Purchasing @ Fuel” interchange rate of 2.05% plus $0.10 per transaction has been added

Visa Interchange Summary

Nearly all business-to-consumer merchants will continue to pay the same interchange rates that they have been paying since April. The only transaction types that have been affected by this update are business-to-business or business-to-government transactions such as Level II and Level III transactions, corporate cards, and purchasing cards. The only business-to-consumer industry that has received a rate increase is the Travel Services industry, and this higher rate only applies to transactions made with corporate or purchasing cards at the following business types: “Travel and Entertainment – Restaurants (MCC 5812, 5814), Hotels (MCC 3519-3828, 7011), Car Rentals (MCC 3351-3518, 7512), Truck and Utility Trailer Rentals (MCC 7513), Passenger Transport (MCC 3000-3299, 4511, 4112), Cruise Lines (MCC 4411), and Travel Agents (MCC 4722).”

For more information about Level II and Level III processing, see this article: What Is Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 Interchange?

MasterCard Interchange Adjustments October 2017

Below are the updated interchange fees for MasterCard card types as of October 2017. See the bottom of this section for a general summary of these changes.

MasterCard Interchange Fee Increases

MasterCard did not raise any of its interchange rates during this update.

MasterCard Interchange Fee Decreases

MasterCard did not lower any of its interchange rates during this update.

New MasterCard Interchange Fees

MasterCard did not introduce any new interchange rates during this update.

MasterCard Interchange Summary

MasterCard has not changed any of its interchange fees or introduced any new interchange fees. Interchange fees on all MasterCard transactions should remain the same until April 2018 and can be seen here.

What About Discover And American Express?

Discover and American Express do not release semiannual interchange updates, so it’s harder to keep track of whether their fees have changed. Discover treats its interchange rates as confidential information, and American Express prefers that its partners do not disclose the wholesale pricing offered in its OptBlue program. However, the credit card processor Helcim displays both Discover’s interchange fees and American Express’s interchange fees for anyone to review. These pages should not be considered authoritative because they are not directly hosted by Discover and American Express. However, Helcim has a reputation for transparency and does not appear to be misleading merchants on these pages.

Are you paying different rates than the ones released by Visa and MasterCard? Let us know in the comment section below.

About The Author

Phillip Parker

Phillip Parker is an independent card payment expert specializing U.S. and Canadian point-of-sale, e-commerce, and mobile payment acceptance. He has nearly two decades of experience in credit card processing as a journalist and consultant. Phillip is the creator of this website and has written over 1,500 articles covering numerous payment acceptance topics. He has also published critical reviews about most merchant services providers currently in operation.

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