Card payment pricing models

Banks and card schemes charge different fees to cover the operational costs of managing their network and processing card payments.

There are three cost components that determine the final card pricing:

• The Interchange fee that is paid to the issuing bank
• The Scheme fee charged by the scheme, like Visa or Mastercard
• The acquirer fee, in this case applied by MultiSafepay

Pricing models

When you create a MultiSafepay account, we provide an offer based on the estimate of these costs.

The actual cost for processing a card transaction vary considerably depending on a range of factors, including:

• Issuer country
• Issuing bank
• Type of card, business or consumer
• Type of card funding, debit or credit
• Type of transaction, Point-of-Sale or Card-not-Present
• Merchant segment
• Monthly transaction volume

We distinguish between two main card pricing models: Blended and Interchange ++.

Blended pricing

In the Blended pricing model, a fixed percentage is charged based on an initial projection of the card volume and market.

Taking into account the fluctuation of fees between the individual transactions, a fixed percentage is agreed and applied to all transactions of the respective card payment method. This means, the charged percentage is stable and predictable. Percentage and quantity of transactions are displayed in the monthly invoice.

Interchange ++ pricing

The Interchange ++ pricing model breaks down the individual costs for the transactions processed during the month.

Once a card transaction is completed, the agreed pre-charge is applied. At the end of the month, the pre-charged fees are contrasted to the actual costs of the transactions. The only fixed component is the Acquirer fee which covers the costs of transaction processing. Scheme fee and Interchange fee are disclosed and corrected in the monthly invoice, under the section Interchange details. The correction appears in one bundled fund or charge transaction.

This type of calculation offers increased transparency. However, the actual cost of a card transaction is difficult to predict upfront but the increased transparency serves businesses of all sizes.

How to choose

If your business does not heavily rely on card volume, and the volume is based pre-dominantly on consumer cards within the EEA, a blended rate provides clear pricing.
If your business mostly relies on cross-border and B2B sales, Interchange++ pricing gives you the highest level of transparency.