Background

There are various fees assessed by card brands that are passed through to merchants. Several of these fees have increased in recent months, and some new fees have been introduced. However, the fees have not been modified or introduced to customers to reflect these changes. The following updates explain the new fees and fee changes that have been introduced by the associations and debit networks. These fee adjustments will be passed directly to merchants where applicable and will be visible on the April processing statement. 

Mastercard Acquirer License Fee

Statement Description: Mastercard Acquire Licensing Fee

New Fee: This fee covers the annual acquirer licensing fee and applies to the Mastercard processing volume. The rate is % and PIN debit volume is excluded.

Statement Description: Visa RAF Never Approve Cross-Border and Visa RAF Never Approve Domestic

New Fee: Visa charges per authorization re-attempts that previously received a Category 1 decline. Category 1 declines indicate that the issuer will never approve the transaction. The rate is $.10 per domestic re-attempt and $.015 per cross-border re-attempt.

Category 1 Response Codes

03 - Invalid Merchant

04 - Pickup Card

07 - Pickup Card, Special Conditions

12 - Invalid Transaction

15 - No Such Issuer

41 - Pickup Card [Lost Card]

43 - Pickup Card [Stolen Card]

57 - Transaction Not Permitted to Cardholder

62 - Restricted Card

78 - No Account

93 - Transaction Cannot be Completed

R0 - Stop Payment Order

R1 - Revocation of Authorization Order

R3 - Revocation of All Authorization

Statement Description: Mastercard Transmission Fee

New Fee: A fee of $.0028 per settled sale and return transaction to cover the cost of Mastercard file transmission expense. 

Note: This is an allocation of Mastercard connectivity expense which they charge per kilobyte of data used for sending clearing messages back and forth with them. 

Statement Description: Visa Misuse of Authorization

New Fee: A per transaction fee of $.09 applied to authorization transactions that are not followed by a matching Visa clearing transaction (or, in the case of a canceled or timed-out transaction, are not properly reversed). 

Statement Description: Mastercard Safety Net Acquirer

New Fee: Mastercard charges $.0007 per SMS transaction for their Safety Net Fraud Services.

Mastercard Address Verification - Card Present

Address Verification - AV

The Address Verification Service (AVS) is a service for online customers that helps to protect against fraudulent use of cards by verifying the cardholder's billing address. AVS provides greater security to merchants and cardholders. 

2AV4006 - Address Verification Service (AVS) Acquirer Fee

This event bills the acquirer for a card-present authorization transaction when the Address Verification Service was sued to confirm the address of the buyer. 

The Following Rates Apply:

Star Acquirer License

Statement Description: Star Acquirer License Fee

New Fee: Star charges $.20 per approved POS and e-Commerce transactions.

Accel Acquirer License

Statement Description: Accel Acquirer License Fee

New Fee: Accel charges $.20 per approved POS and e-Commerce transactions.