WSJ: Expect Visa & Mastercard Interchange Fee Hikes

Advertiser Disclosure Editorial Disclosure

Visa and Mastercard are set to raise fees on credit card transactions. After two years of delays due to the coronavirus pandemic, the fee changes are set to roll out in April.

Visa and Mastercard Expected to Raise Interchange Fees in April

Anticipate a change to your credit card fees starting in April. The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reports that both Visa and Mastercard are set to raise fees on credit card transactions, as costs have ballooned for both payment networks during the COVID-19 chaos of the last two years. Interchange fees are expected to make up most of the fee increases. The report states that many of the impacted transactions will be online consumer credit-card purchases.

According to the WSJ report, both Visa and Mastercard will increase the fees on more than a dozen in-store purchase categories, including small and medium-sized grocery stores and many in-person retailers. Consulting company CMSPI believes Mastercard’s interchange fee changes will result in an estimated net annual increase of around $330 million for merchants.

What are Interchange Fees?

Interchange fees are an often-unseen charge added to the cost of a credit card transaction. These interchange fees are also known as “swipe fees” and are added by payment networks per-swipe fee charged by banks to merchants using credit or debit cards.

Some Business Sectors to See a Fee Reduction

It’s not all bad news for credit card users, however. Mastercard lowers merchant costs for transactions under $5 and reduces fees to COVID-impacted businesses, such as hotels and casual dining restaurants. Visa will lower fees for online and in-store purchases from retailers with less than $250,000 in annual consumer credit card volume. Additionally, according to a spokesperson, Visa will lower fees by 10% for more than 90% of American businesses.

Related Article: Types of Credit Card Fees

Featured image by mohamed_hassan/PixaBay

About: Cory
Cory Santos

Cory is BestCards.com's "Jack of all trades" and resident credit expert, covering all facets of the credit card space. Cory holds academic degrees in both the U.S. and U.K. In addition to credit cards, Cory finds that jogging, cats, and memes are essential parts of a balanced day.

Advertiser Disclosure

BestCards is an independent, Florida-based credit card comparison platform. Many of the card offers that appear on this site are from companies from which BestCards receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site (including, for example, the order in which they appear). BestCards does not include all card companies or all card offers available in the marketplace.