Understanding Assessment Fees: What Visa and Mastercard Charge You

While most merchants focus on interchange rates and processor markups, there is a third component of processing costs that often goes unnoticed: assessment fees. These are charges levied by the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, Discover, American Express) themselves, separate from the interchange fees paid to card-issuing banks.

What Are Assessment Fees?

Assessment fees (also called network fees or brand usage fees) are charges that Visa and Mastercard assess on all transactions processed through their networks. Unlike interchange, which is paid to the card-issuing bank, assessment fees go directly to the card networks.

Current Assessment Fee Rates

• Visa: 0.14% on credit transactions, 0.13% on debit transactions
• Mastercard: 0.1375% on transactions under $1,000, 0.01% on transactions over $1,000
• Discover: 0.13% on all transactions
• American Express: Variable; typically bundled into the OptBlue program rate

Additional Network Fees

Beyond base assessment fees, the card networks also charge various supplemental fees: Fixed Acquirer Network Fee (FANF), Kilobyte Access Fee, Network Access and Brand Usage (NABU) fee, and international transaction fees for cross-border transactions.

How to Identify Them on Your Statement

On an interchange-plus statement, assessment fees should be listed separately from interchange and processor markup. On a tiered statement, they are bundled into the qualified, mid-qualified, and non-qualified tiers, making them invisible to the merchant.

Mogil Partners includes assessment fee analysis in every statement review. Understanding all three cost components is essential for evaluating your true processing expense.