If your ecommerce business accepts Visa payments, take note. Visa has announced changes to swipe fees that could affect your budget.
Specifically, Visa announced that the changes would increase swipe fees for merchants who process card-not-present transactions, which directly affects ecommerce businesses and those who take payment over the phone. Bloomberg has declared these changes the “biggest changes to swipe fees in a decade.”
Swipe fees, also referred to as interchange fees, currently range depending on industry. As of now, it’s not clear which industries the swipe fee increases will affect. This announcement comes on the heels of another announcement last year from shipping carriers of routine rate increases — another change that could affect ecommerce businesses.
Credit card swipe fees have averaged around two percent but can be as much as four percent for some premium rewards credit cards. These swipe fees vary even more according to how many swipes a merchant processes. We’ll walk you through the changes, when you can expect them and how they will affect both your ecommerce business and your customers.
What Are The Changes?
As an ecommerce business owner, expect to pay 0.09% to 0.1% more in swipe fees to banks per Visa-holding customer.
This means swipe fees will increase for traditional Visa cards from $1.90 to $1.99 on a $100 transaction. Swipe fees for premium Visa cards will increase from $2.50 to $2.60 also on a $100 transaction.
When Will These Changes Take Effect?
The updated rates are announced to go into effect in two phases — in April and October of this year, during Visa’s semiannual fee update period.
How Will This Affect My Ecommerce Business?
It’s unclear yet how different industries will be affected, so prepare to see the increases stated above for each transaction your ecommerce store has. Expect a higher bill in April or October of this year. Although the changes seem like a few cents, the costs can add up if you experience many transactions a month.
How Will This Affect My Customers?
It depends on how you’ll prepare to take the weight of the swipe fee increases. Many businesses end up charging slightly more for their goods and services to mitigate the swipe fee costs.