SpectrumPayment Solutions
All terms
Fees & Pricing

Effective Rate

Total processing fees divided by total sales volume for a period, expressed as a percentage. It is the single most useful number for comparing providers because it captures every fee, not just the advertised rate.

Calculate it from your own statement: add up every fee, divide by your volume. That one figure cuts through confusing quotes and tells you what you truly pay.

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Related terms

Fees & Pricing

Processing Fee

The total charge a merchant pays to accept a card payment, combining interchange, network assessments, and the provider's markup. Comparing the all-in effective rate — total fees divided by total volume — is the clearest way to judge cost.

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Fees & Pricing

Discount Rate

The percentage a merchant pays on each transaction under a bundled pricing model. It packages interchange and markup into one rate, which is simple to read but can obscure how much margin the provider is actually taking.

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Fees & Pricing

Interchange

The fee set by the card networks and paid to the customer's issuing bank on every transaction. Interchange is the largest, non-negotiable component of processing cost — everything a provider charges sits on top of it.

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