Short answer
Any pricing that combines interchange, network fees and markup into one or a few published rates, so the parts are not visible.
Flat-rate pricing is the simplest blended model. Tiered pricing, which sorts cards into “qualified”, “mid-qualified” and “non-qualified” buckets, is another. In both, you can’t see how much of each fee is the card network’s cost and how much is the processor’s margin.
A negotiated blended rate can still be a good deal, but it’s harder to audit than interchange-plus pricing. Whatever the model, compare offers on your effective rate.
Part of our guide to interchange-plus pricing explained.
Related terms
- Flat-rate pricing: One fixed price for every card payment, such as 2.9% + 30¢, whatever the card type and real cost underneath.
- Interchange-plus pricing: A pricing model where you pay the actual interchange and network fees on each payment, plus a fixed processor markup.
- Processor markup: The part of a card fee that your processor keeps, on top of interchange and card network fees.