SpectrumPayment Solutions
All 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.

Headline rates can hide the real cost. The effective rate on your statement tells the truth, and it is the number worth negotiating and tracking over time.

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Related terms

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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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

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.

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