Program Rates & Terms

Address Verification Service (AVS):
AVS is a tool for merchants to reduce the risk associated with card not present transactions, such as mail order, telephone order or Internet transactions. The billing address given by the customer is passed in the transaction and it is checked against the billing address on file at the customer's card issuing bank.

Annual Fee:
A fee charged to Merchants, which can be used to lower the discount rate.

Application Fee:
This is a fee for processing the paperwork and setting up the account.

Annual Fee:
A fee charged to Merchants, which can be used to lower the discount rate.

Transaction Fee:
The per transaction fee is the fee charged by the processor to process each transaction.

Automated Response Unit (ARU):
An ARU allows the manual keyed entry and subsequent authorization of a credit card over a cellular or land-line telephone. A business typically imprints their customer's card with an imprinter and then processes the transaction instantaneously over the phone.

Batch Fee:
This fee is charged when you settle your daily batch and transfer the settled funds into your bank account. If you do not have any transactions a particular day, you are not charged this fee.

Cancellation Fee:
The cancellation fee is charged by some providers if the merchant ends the contract before the end of the contract term or does not provide the proper notice of cancellation.

Chargeback Fee:
Chargebacks and retrieval fees are related to a customer or issuing bank disputing a transaction that was processed. The merchant who charged the transaction is notified of the dispute via postal mail, email, fax, or a combination. Common reasons for a customer disputing a charge are: the customer doesn't recognize the charge, the product or service was not as described, or someone fraudulently used their credit card. A merchant will have a chance to refute the dispute by providing a written response and documentation.

Customer Svc Fee:
The customer service fee (also known as a maintenance fee) can be charged by some providers to pay for the cost of customer service.

Download Fee:
Fee charged whenever a new application is “downloaded” to the merchant’s terminal.  Predominantly this only applies at initial setup.

Manual Voice Authorization
This fee is only charged when you call in your transaction to an 800 number. It is useful if your terminal or software isn't working and you need to perform an authorization.

Minimum Monthly
A monthly minimum fee is not an extra fee but rather a minimum amount that the processor or merchant account provider needs to have in “discount “fees. As long as your discount fees meet or exceed this minimum, you are not charged any extra fees. However, if your monthly discount fees are less than this minimum, then you are charged the difference up to the minimum. For example, if you have $20 in discount fees in a given month, and your account has a $25 monthly minimum on it, you will be charged an additional $5 to meet the monthly minimum.

Non-Qualified Card Surcharge
For cards that do not fall into the qualified category. The discount fee will be the actual interchange rate plus the Non-Qualified Card Surcharge.

Offline Debit
This is when a debit card is processed like a credit card. Only debit cards that have the Visa or MasterCard logo can be processed as an offline debit.

PIN Debit Transaction Fees
These only apply if you will be swiping cards and you have a pinpad attached to your terminal, and it only applies to debit cards.

Qualified Discount Rate:
The Qualified Discount Rate is the rate paid when Merit III, CPS Retail, or PSL – Retail CR cards are processed and the retail transactions are card-swiped and the merchant does an electronic batch settlement (batches-out) at the end of everyday.

Retrieval Fee:
Chargebacks and retrieval fees are related to a customer or issuing bank disputing a transaction that was processed. The merchant who charged the transaction is notified of the dispute via postal mail, email, fax, or a combination. Common reasons for a customer disputing a charge are: the customer doesn't recognize the charge, the product or service was not as described, or someone fraudulently used their credit card. A merchant will have a chance to refute the dispute by providing a written response and documentation.

Return Trans fee:
This fee applies to settled transactions that are returned for various reasons.

Setup Fee:
An initial fee paid to the Merchant Service Provider for establishment of an account and for processing and reporting tools.

Statement fee:
The statement fee is a monthly fee associated with the monthly statement that is sent to the merchant at the end of each monthly processing cycle. This statement shows how much processing was done by the merchant during the month and what fees were incurred as a result.