The short version
Every card sale has a wholesale cost, and a markup that your processor decides. Interchange plus pricing puts both on your statement as separate numbers.
The wholesale cost is mostly interchange: a fee your processor pays to the bank that issued your customer’s card. There are also smaller network fees that go to the card networks themselves.
Because the two parts are separate, you can see which part of your bill the card networks set and which part your processor sets.
What the two parts are
The interchange part is the wholesale cost. It goes to the bank that issued your customer’s card. The card networks publish the rates. Visa Canada’s rate sheet says its published rates apply where the banks involved have not set their own terms. Your processor does not set them.
Network fees come with it. TD’s fee list, for example, shows Visa and Mastercard “assessment fees” of 0.1017% each, passed on to merchants.
The plus part is your processor’s markup. Usually a small percentage plus a few cents per sale. This is the part each processor sets. Helcim publishes its markup: 0.40% + 8¢ for in-person sales at its lowest volume tier, down to 0.15% + 6¢ at its highest.
How to read it on a statement
An interchange plus statement is longer than a flat-rate one. It lists card types separately, because each one costs a different amount at wholesale. On Visa Canada’s rate sheet, for example, an in-person sale costs 1.25% on a Classic card and 2.08% on an Infinite Privilege card.
It has three main parts:
- The interchange lines. Grouped by card type, with a rate and a count. TD’s guide says that for interchange plus merchants, its “interchange differential” column shows the interchange rate for each card type.
- The markup line. Your processor’s own rate per brand. On TD’s sample statement this is the “credit rate” line for each brand.
- The fixed monthly fees. Statement fees, PCI fees, gateway fees. These sit outside the pricing model and appear as their own lines.
If you cannot find the markup as its own line, you are probably not on interchange plus. How to Read Your Merchant Statement walks through each section.
A worked example
Here is one $100 in-person sale on a basic Visa credit card in Canada, using published rates. The markup is Helcim’s lowest-tier in-person rate, used as an example only.
| Part | Where the rate comes from | On a $100 sale |
|---|---|---|
| Interchange | Visa Canada, Classic card, in person: 1.25% | $1.25 |
| Network (assessment) fee | TD’s fee list, Visa assessment fee: 0.1017% | $0.10 |
| Markup | Helcim Tier 1, in person: 0.40% + 8¢ | $0.48 |
| Total for this sale | $1.83 |
Helcim’s own fee disclosure lists a combined rate of 1.75% + 8¢ for a Visa consumer card in person at that tier, or $1.83 on $100.
Your own numbers depend on your card mix: every card type has its own interchange. The card fee calculator shows the total for a given set of figures.
How it compares with flat rate
Interchange plus and flat rate charge for the same thing in two different ways:
| Factor | Interchange plus | Flat rate |
|---|---|---|
| How the rate is shown | Wholesale cost and markup as separate lines | One rate per type of sale |
| Card mix | Each card type costs its own wholesale amount | Every credit card costs the same rate. Square Canada: “the same base rate for every credit card” |
| Example published rate | Helcim: interchange + 0.40% + 8¢ in person (Tier 1) | Square Canada: 2.5% in person for credit |
| Fixed monthly fees | Vary by provider | Vary by provider |
| Statement length | Longer, with each card type listed | Short |
More detail: Flat Rate vs Interchange Plus vs Tiered, Tiered Pricing Explained and Processor Markup.
Canada and the United States
The idea is the same on both sides of the border. The rates are not.
- In Canada, Interac debit has its own fees. At the network level, tap sales carry a small flat interchange of a few cents. What a merchant pays depends on the processor: Helcim lists a flat 9¢ for chip and PIN, while Square Canada lists 0.75% + 7¢. See Interac Debit: How It Is Priced and card processing in Canada.
- In the United States, a federal rule called Regulation II limits debit interchange to 21 cents plus 0.05% of the sale for card issuers with $10 billion or more in assets. Smaller issuers are exempt, so two debit cards that look the same can cost different amounts. The rule is being challenged in court, and the cap stays in force while an appeal is pending. See US Debit Fees: Regulation II (Durbin). More in card processing in the United States.
Where to go from here
An interchange plus statement lists interchange card type by card type, separate from a line for the processor’s own rate. That second line shows what the processor adds.
If you cannot find them, the statement decoder explains each line and which pricing model it belongs to. Want a partner to review your statement? We will put you in touch. Start the free statement review.