Estimated reading time: 1 minute
What fees should I see on my merchant statement?
Your merchant statement has a lot of valuable information, and one of the most important sections is the Summary. A summary outlines:
- Total amount submitted
- Third-party transactions
- Chargebacks / reversals
- Adjustments
- Fees
The fees shown reflect the cost you’ll pay to the credit card processor, and all of these fees are collected by payment processors. Some of the fees that you’ll see include:
- Interchange fees paid to the issuing bank
- Assessment fees paid to the card companies
Both of these fees are wholesale or base cost fees, but the payment processor also has its own fees. Processors will charge a markup, or cost above base, for their services.
Are all the fees necessary?
Interchange and assessment fees, or the base fees that are collected for someone other than the payment processor, are necessary fees. These fees are fixed and cannot be negotiated by the merchant.
Merchants can negotiate the fees paid to the payment processor, and discounts often begin when certain high-volume levels are reached.
