Determine your Interchange++ costs

Pro tip: Adyen’s pricing is based on Interchange++ (using a pass-through model). This means that your interchange costs depend on the card mix of your customer base

In order to understand what your interchange costs will be, you will need to analyze the card mix of your (potential) customers.

Here are a few ways to obtain this data:

  1. Review the IC detail report if you already embed payments.

  2. Request a sub-merchants processing statement and analyze the figures. Make sure you purely look at their payment costs, and deduct any recurring or one-off costs for non-payment related activities.

  3. Make an informed estimate based on typical card usage and industry trends (consult your Adyen Account Manager for more information)

Pro tip:  [UK specific] Calculate your IC costs using this calculator.

Regional consideration for interchange

As you choose to expand your platform business into new regions like the US & Europe, it’s helpful to know that the interchange fees are capped under the following regulations. This could reduce barriers to enter these markets with competitive payments pricing.

European Interchange Fee Regulation (IRF)

The European Economic Area (EEA) introduced interchange fee regulations in 2015 where interchange fees are capped for consumer cards in all countries within the EEA region. As a result, the EEA is now one of the cheapest options worldwide and is considered an excellent place to set up entities for cross-border transactions.

The EEA and UK interregional fee caps for card-present transactions are:

  • 0.20% for debit transactions 

  • 0.30% for credit transactions 

  • 1.15% for card-not-present debit transactions

  • 1.50% for card-not-present credit transactions

The Durbin Amendment (US only)

This amendment was enacted in 2010. If the issuing bank has assets of $10 billion or more, its debit and prepaid cards will be charged regulated rates (i.e. an interchange rate of 0.05% + $0.21 or 0.05% + $0.22), depending on fraud prevention policies.

If you’re considering expanding to these regions, read more details here.