I/C (Interchange Clearing) Fee

Credit card companies make it difficult for credit card transactions to settle at the lowest interchange fees by adding stringent rules. However, they came up with a solution to fix this for you called I/C (Interchange Clearing) Fee, or another processor calls it CCIS (Commercial Card Interchange Service). It is when the credit card processors fix the transaction for 75% of the savings.

See below for what it looks like on your statement.

Before you think this is a good deal, let’s do the math and shine the light on this a little more…

If a merchant runs a $500 transaction that was going to downgrade from missing data, they will insert the missing data before sending it off to the processing networks. By doing this, the transaction will settle at a lower interchange fee – on average, about 85 basis points less, saving the merchant $4.25. The processor will take $3.19 and give the merchant $1.06 and say the merchant should be happy. After all, if not for them, they would have lost $4.25.

However, third-party companies will also do this and their fee is only 5 basis points. So, let’s do the math on that:  .05% of $500 is only $0.25, so the third party will save you the same $4.25 and they will take $0.25 and give you the $4.00.

Option A – Use your processor who is creating the problem to fix the problem and you keep $1.06.

Option B – Use a third party that helps fix your interchange and you keep $4.00.

I think it is an easy decision. The only exception is when your ERP or POS blocks third parties to increase profits and prevent you from getting help.

Click here to schedule a call to learn how easy it is to fix this.

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