I'm paying 0.15% + $0.26 for those transactions through another MSP. I think many people are paying the 2.9% for the convenience Stripe and PayPal offer over applying for and integrating a merchant account and gateway, not because they're a huge risk and nobody else would take their business at lower rates.
No, it does include that fee. That 0.05% + $0.21 I referenced is the interchange fee charged by Visa. That fee was capped at that low level by the Durbin Amendment of the Dodd-Frank financial reform legislation in 2010. Stripe's pricing has been 95%+ markup when it comes to debit/check cards since then. Other card types don't have such an enormous fee spread, but unless all your customers are paying with corporate cards and AmEx, 2.9% flat rate is a real nice margin.
At the risk of being dense, are you sure you're not talking about debit cards? I've never seen interchange fees lower than about 1% for credit cards. In what I read from the Durbin Amendment, I've only found the specific numbers you mentioned in reference to debit cards.
If I'm wrong, I want the name of your merchant processor!
I am most definitely talking about debit cards. I said "fee for charging a debit/check card". They make up 25% of my online processing volume despite being a mostly B2B business. They're probably more than 25% of Stripe's volume.
Whoops, you did say that, way back in the first post in our thread. Sorry, I've been focused on credit cards — all is clear now. I hadn't thought at all about that wrinkle of Stripe.
I suppose it's (only partially) balanced by the higher AMEX, etc fees.
