| This is not true. Anyone in the US who has told you this is confused or getting ripped off by a predatory ISO (the companies that offer credit card processing). Numbers below are only looking at the percentage, not the flat per txn fee or the other fees like assessments, etc... Only apply to the US. Also assuming you do less than 1 million a year in card volume. First let's look at actual merchant services costs: Stripe, Braintree/PayPal (online) you pay the same fee for all cards. Around 2.90% Wells Fargo (in-person) charges the same rate for all cards until you are high volume. Around 2.40% Chase (in-person) charges the same rate for all cards until you are high volume. Around 2.60% Bank of America (in-person) charges the same rate for all cards until you are high volume. Around 2.65% Now let's look at the actual amount the card issuer charges for a restaurant to accept a card (assuming you're working with an ISO that does OptBlue, all the above do). The markup you pay your merchant services provider is added on top of this. Amex: 1.60% - 2.85%. Visa: 2.10% - 2.70%. MasterCard: 1.85% - 2.00%. |