As a merchant, retailer or restaurant who accepts customer payments via credit and debit card, it's important to understand the details of the credit card processing rates you are paying.  You can find these rates detailed in the fine print of the contract you signed with your credit card processing company.  If these seem like they are a foreign language and very difficult to understand, it's often because the company does not want you to understand easily the rates you are paying because then you could more easily compare to a different and less expensive company!  Credit card processing rates are complicated to understand and worse, it's difficult to compare one to the next because the merchant account plan that is best for business may depend on what types of transactions you do: Two businesses with the same revenue could have very different revenue: One might have about ten credit card transactions each month for large amounts: this could be a car dealership charging the down payment for new vehicles. The other business may have several thousand transactions, most of which are under $20: this could be a small restaurant or fast food place.  The structure of credit card rates will mean these companies need to shop around for very different merchant services accounts to get the possible processing rates for their types of transactions.

In almost every case, the processing rates for credit cards will differ from credit cards.  Credit card rates are higher because the processor is taking the risk that the customer may not pay their card off.  A debit card is cheaper because there is less risk: the money is taken right out of the account at that moment and there's no risk involved.  You will want to shop around for the lowest possible debit and credit card processing rates.  The rates will also differ depending on whether the actual card is present or not: typically a business like a restaurant where the server will swipe the actual card can get lower rates than a business where they never actually see the real card.  Examples of this might be a plumber who writes down credit card numbers to key in later, or a company that takes credit card payments over the phone.  Processing rates for transactions where the cost is not present are more expensive since there's a chance that the buyer actually doesn't have the card and may be using a stolen credit card number. You will want to understand if the card will be present for most of your transactions and get the best possible rate for these transactions.  Keep in mind that these fees typically have two parts: there is probably a flat fee which is the same for each transaction, and a percentage fee that is calculated based on the amount of the purchase.  If you have large transactions, it's important to get the lowest percent possible.  In a business with many smaller transactions, you'll want to keep the fixed fee to a minimum since you will be encountering it so often.

In addition to the credit card processing rates, most merchant services providers will charge you a monthly fee that may vary by the number of transactions you do, the amount of revenue your business has, or any number of other factors.  Don't forget to take the monthly cost into account when comparing several merchant account providers in order to get the cheapest possible credit card processing rates.