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    What are card brand fees?

    Card Brand Fees or Association Fees are fees assessed and paid to Visa, MasterCard, American Express and Discover. The fees are collected by Paya and passed through the card brand.

    Visa

    • .13% - Debit Assessment - This assessment applies to gross Visa debit transaction volume.
      .13% - Credit Assessment - This assessment applies to gross Visa credit transaction volume. **This fee will be increased by .01% to .14% as of January 1st, 2019.   
    • $0.0195 - Acquirer Processing Fee (APF) - Credit
      The Acquirer Processing Fee applies to all U.S.-based credit card authorizations acquired in the U.S. regardless of where the issuer/cardholder is located.
    • $0.0155 - Acquirer Processing Fee (APF) - Debit
      For transactions involving a debit card.
    • Transaction Integrity Fee (TIF)
      Visa charges a Transaction Integrity Fee (TIF) of $0.10 on transactions involving Visa debit and prepaid cards that do not meet CPS requirements.
    • Variable - Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF)
       FANF is a monthly fee that varies based on processing method, number of locations and volume. This has been effective as of April 1, 2012.
    • $0.09- Misuse of Authorization Fee
      The Misuse of Authorization Fee applies to Visa authorizations that are not followed by a matching clearing transaction (or in the case of a canceled or timed out authorization, not properly reversed).
    • $0.20 - Zero Floor Limit Fee
      Visa's Zero Floor Limit applies to cleared transactions that can't be matched to a previously approved or partially-approved authorization.
    • $0.025 - Zero Dollar Verification Fee
      The Zero Dollar Verification fee applies to Zero Dollar Verification messages (approved and declined). Zero Dollar Verification messages include the verification of the card account number, address verification (through AVS), Card Verification Value 2 (CVV2) and Single Message System (SMS) acquired Account Verification authorizations. The Visa Misuse of Authorization Fee does not apply to these requests. The fee applies when you want to verify a cardholder's information without actually authorizing an amount of their card.
    • .80% - International Service Assessment Fee
      The International Service Assessment Fee applies to the U.S. acquired transactions paid for with a card issued outside of the U.S.
    • .45% - International Acquirer Fee
      The International Acquirer Fee applies under the same circumstances as the International Service Assessment Fee.
      • The International Service Assessment Fee and International Acquirer Fee often both apply to the same transaction which can add to  0.85%.

    MasterCard

    • .12% - Assessment (Transactions less than $1,000) .14% (Transactions over $1,000)
      The assessment applies to gross MasterCard transaction volume.
    • .13% - Assessment (Transactions greater than $1,000)
    • .01% - Digital Enablement Fee - This fee will be assessed on MasterCard card-not-present sales volume involving signature debit, consumer credit and commercial credit transactions.
    • $0.0195 - Network Access and Brand Usage Fee (NABU)- The NABU fee will apply to U.S.-based authorization transactions.
    • .60% - Cross Border Assessment Fee (Domestic)- The domestic Cross-Border Assessment Fee applies to U.S. acquired transactions paid for with a card issued outside of the U.S.
    • 1.00% - Cross-Border Assessment Fee (Foreign)- The foreign Cross-Border Assessment Fee applies to international transactions settled by U.S.-based merchants in a currency other than U.S dollars.
    • .85% - Acquirer Program Support Fee- The Acquirer Program Support Fee applies to international transactions settled by U.S.-based merchant.
    • $0.0075 - AVS Fee (Card-Not-Present)
      MasterCard charges a fee each time a merchant access the address verification service when processing a transaction.
    • $0.005 - AVS Fee (Card-Present)
    • $0.0025 - Card Validation Code Fee This fee will be charged on transactions acquired in the United States with the CVC2 (three digit code on the back of the customer's card) included in the transaction for authorization and the CVC2 response value equals ’M’ (Match) or ’N’ (Invalid/did not match).
    • $0.025 - Account Status Inquiry Fee
      The account status inquiry fee is charged for transactions where a merchant does actually authorize an amount on a cardholder's account, that validates aspects of the account. Account status inquiry transactions may include requests for address verification service (AVS), or card validation code (CVC2).
    • $0.055 - Processing Integrity Fee (Card-Present, Card-Not-Present, No reversal)
       MasterCard charges  a Processing Integrity Fee of $0.055 to encourage merchants to abide by proper transaction authorization standards.
    • $1.25 Merchant Location Fee- Fixed monthly fee for accepting MasterCard. 

    Discover

    • 0.13% - Assessment
      The assessment applies to gross Discover card transaction volume.
    • $0.02 - Data Usage Fee
      The Data Usage Fee applies to all U.S.-based authorization transactions.
    • .55% - International Service Fee
      Fee applies to any cards that are accepted from outside the U.S.

    American Express

    • 0.15% - Assessment / Network fee
      The assessment applies to gross American Express card volume.
    • 0.35% - Card-Not-Present (CNP) Surcharge
      The American Express card-not-present surcharge applies to gross card-not-present volume, such as keyed and e-commerce transactions
    • 0.40% - International Assessment
      This assessment applies to gross sales volume involving a card issued outside of the United States.


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