Merchant Account Annual Service Fee Explained:
What is an Annual Service Fee? Often times, the fee is nothing more than the annual PCI Compliance Fee but is called an “Annual Service Fee” to avoid confusion, since most merchant are not familiar with PCI Compliance. Nearly every merchant account provider charges an “Annual Service Fee” nowadays. This is because the costs of managing merchant accounts has risen dramatically for credit card processors in the last decade. With payment gateway or payment technology providers, the annual fee is often a fee for the use of a particular service (e.g. virtual terminal or payment gateway for website processing). If your merchant account provider charges both an Annual Service Fee and an annual PCI Compliance Fee, you may want to get clarification to understand why you are being charged both fees.
