Also called: Credit Card Account, Credit Card Payment
What a credit card is
A credit card is a payment card linked to a credit account. When your customer uses it, the issuer pays through the card-payment system and the customer repays the issuer later. The issuer sets the customer’s credit limit and bills them for purchases, interest and applicable fees.
For your business, the key distinction is that the customer is paying with borrowed funds, not money drawn directly from a deposit account. The card type can affect your processing cost, but the customer’s interest rate is not a fee charged to you.
You cannot negotiate interchange or network fees, but you can challenge your processor’s markup and extra charges.
How a credit card payment works
When a customer taps, inserts or enters card details, your point-of-sale system or checkout sends the transaction for authorization. The request travels through your processor and the card network to the issuer, which approves or declines it. An approval lets you complete the sale, but it is not the same as receiving the money.
Approved transactions are collected and settled separately. Funds typically reach your business account within 1 to 3 business days. A credit card purchase can also later become a dispute: as of 2026, Visa and Mastercard rules generally give cardholders 120 calendar days to dispute a transaction, with outer limits up to 540 days for some delayed-delivery cases.
What credit cards cost your business
Credit card acceptance costs have three layers: interchange paid to the issuing bank, network fees paid to the card network, and your processor’s markup. The first two are not negotiable, though the card category and transaction details affect interchange. The processor markup is the part you can negotiate.
As of 2026, Visa’s assessment is 0.14% on credit sales. Visa also charges a US Acquirer Processing Fee of $0.0195 per credit authorization, and its monthly Fixed Acquirer Network Fee is based on locations for card-present businesses and card-not-present volume. Mastercard’s assessment is 0.14% on sales, plus 0.01% on transactions of $1,000 or more. Its Network Access and Brand Usage fee is $0.0195 per authorization.
Those published network charges are separate from interchange and your processor markup. On a high-volume business, small per-authorization fees add up even when individual amounts look minor. Your customer’s credit-card interest is paid to the issuer, not included in your merchant processing fees.
Where credit card costs appear on your statement
Look for separate lines labeled interchange, assessment, Visa APF, Visa FANF, Mastercard NABU, or processor markup. Exact abbreviations and grouping differ by statement. On interchange-plus pricing, interchange and network charges appear as pass-through costs; on tiered or bundled pricing, those costs are combined into rates that make the processor’s markup harder to identify.
Compare your billed assessment and authorization fees with the published amounts, then separate those charges from the processor’s percentage, per-transaction markup and monthly fees. A line labeled simply “discount” is not enough to tell you which part of the bill is negotiable.
What it means for your business
Credit cards give customers a way to pay without using cash or drawing directly on their bank balance. For you, each approved sale brings processing costs, and a later dispute can temporarily remove the sale amount while you respond. Keep transaction records and receipts so you can document what the customer bought and when you delivered it.
What you can actually change
- Separate the fee layers. Ask for a statement view that itemizes interchange, network fees and processor markup. This shows which charges are pass-through costs and which belong to your pricing agreement.
- Check authorization charges. Compare Visa APF and Mastercard NABU line items with the 2026 amounts of $0.0195 per credit authorization. Also review Visa FANF against your locations and card-not-present volume.
- Negotiate the markup. Focus on the processor’s percentage, per-transaction markup and monthly charges. Those are negotiable, unlike interchange and network fees.
Frequently asked questions
Does a credit card cost my business more than a debit card?
The cost depends on the card and transaction details. Credit card charges include interchange, network fees and processor markup. As of 2026, Visa’s credit assessment is 0.14%, while its debit and prepaid assessment is 0.13%; those figures are network assessments, not the full processing cost.
Which credit card processing fees can I negotiate?
You can negotiate the processor markup, including percentage and per-transaction charges, as well as contractual monthly fees. Interchange goes to the issuing bank and network fees go to the card network, so those charges are not negotiable.
Does a credit card authorization mean I have been paid?
No. Authorization means the issuer approved the transaction. Settlement happens later, after approved sales are submitted and funds move through the payment system. Settlement typically takes 1 to 3 business days.