How the card is captured is a published interchange factor. Chip or tap at a terminal is card-present and usually cheaper. Typing the account number (keyed) or taking it on a website (e-commerce) costs more because the issuing bank cannot inspect the plastic. Visa's U.S. interchange tables, effective April 18, 2026, price that gap in the open. It is not a processor surcharge on "online." It is the wholesale category the sale qualifies for.
Typical total processing fees are often described as 1.5 percent to 3.5 percent of the transaction plus a per-item fee (U.S. Chamber of Commerce, 4 Jun 2026). Treat that as a typical range, not a quote. Capture method moves the largest layer inside it. U.S. banks collected nearly $66 billion in interchange in 2025 (Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, 9 Apr 2026). Markup still sits on top. Changing how you take the card does not waive the plus. It can keep a present card out of a remote category.
Three capture methods
Card-present means the cardholder, the card or wallet, and the terminal are in the same place. Dip the chip or tap contactless. When that sale meets the program rules, it qualifies for the cheaper retail rows on the card-present table.
Keyed means someone typed the account number into a terminal or a virtual terminal. The customer can be standing at the counter. Visa still lists CPS/Retail Key Entry as its own card-present fee program, and on exempt debit it prices that program like card-not-present. Presence of a person is not the same as presence of a chip read.
e-Commerce means the card is taken on a website, in an app checkout, or as card-on-file. Mail order and telephone order sit in the same card-not-present family. Visa publishes both CPS/e-Commerce Basic and CPS/Card Not Present. On exempt debit they currently match.
A phone-wallet tap at the register is card-present. The same wallet paying inside a browser is not. Do not let a sales sheet call every "mobile" sale in-person.
Fuel, supermarket, restaurant, and small-ticket rows are separate programs. The capture split still applies. The dollars change with merchant category.
Why keyed and e-commerce cost more
Issuers fund fraud they cannot see. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (25 Feb 2026), using the Board of Governors' 2023 debit-card report, finds that card-not-present fraud rates on non-prepaid debit continued to climb through 2023. Dual-message card-present fraud moved the other way from 2021 to 2023, to 14.2 basis points. Networks do not wait for your chargeback ratio to reprice a sale. They publish a higher category when the chip is not read.
You cannot negotiate that category with a processor. You can stop putting a present card into the keyed bucket, and you can send the data an e-commerce preferred program asks for. Everything else is markup, which is the only layer anyone competes on. See interchange vs assessments vs markup.
What Visa publishes (April 18, 2026)
These figures are Visa USA interchange reimbursement fees, paid to the cardholder's bank. Merchants pay a merchant discount to their financial institution that includes this layer plus assessments and markup (Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, 18 Apr 2026). Other networks publish their own schedules. Confirm the category names on your statement.
Exempt consumer debit (small issuers, not under the Durbin cap):
| Capture | Visa program | Interchange |
|---|---|---|
| Chip or tap, retail | CPS/Retail, Debit | 0.80% + $0.15 |
| Keyed at a terminal | CPS/Retail Key Entry, Debit | 1.65% + $0.15 |
| Website | CPS/e-Commerce Basic, Debit | 1.65% + $0.15 |
| Other card-not-present | CPS/Card Not Present, Debit | 1.65% + $0.15 |
| Website, preferred retail | CPS/e-Commerce Preferred Retail, Debit | 1.60% + $0.15 |
Keyed, basic e-commerce, and card-not-present are the same rate on this table. Preferred e-commerce shaves 5 basis points if the sale qualifies. That is data and authentication, not a coupon.
Regulated debit is the exception. Under the Federal Reserve's Regulation II, debit interchange received by issuers with $10 billion or more in assets is capped at 21 cents plus 5 basis points, plus up to 1 cent if fraud-prevention standards are met. Small issuers are exempt. Visa's regulated column is 0.05% + $0.21 (plus $0.01 when the issuer certifies) on retail, key entry, e-commerce, and card-not-present alike. Capture method does not break the cap. Markup and gateway fees still can.
Consumer credit, "All Other Products" (the basic consumer credit column, not Signature or Infinite):
- Card-present Product 2: 1.51% + $0.10
- Card-not-present Product 1: 1.89% + $0.10
Traditional Rewards on the same tables: 1.65% + $0.10 card-present versus 2.04% + $0.10 card-not-present. Fail the program rules and both tables list Non-Qualified Consumer Credit at 3.15% + $0.10.
- 0.80% + $0.15 interchange
- Chip or tap at a terminal
- On a $100 sale: $0.95
- 1.65% + $0.15 interchange
- Key entry, card-not-present, or e-commerce basic
- On a $100 sale: $1.80
A worked month (illustrative)
Apply those published debit rates to 500 sales of $100, or $50,000 of exempt Visa debit. The month is illustrative. The rates are not.
| Mix | Interchange math | Total | Share of volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| All chip or tap | $50,000 × 0.80% + 500 × $0.15 | $475 | 0.95% |
| All keyed or e-commerce basic | $50,000 × 1.65% + 500 × $0.15 | $900 | 1.80% |
| Gap | $425 | 85 basis points |
Same tickets, same exempt debit cards, $425 more wholesale cost because nobody dipped or tapped. Processor markup, assessments, batch, and PCI still add after this. Repeat the credit version on "All Other Products": card-present Product 2 is $50,000 × 1.51% + 500 × $0.10 = $805. Card-not-present Product 1 is $50,000 × 1.89% + 500 × $0.10 = $995. Gap: $190, or 38 basis points, before markup.
A real month is a mix. Twenty percent keyed on an otherwise card-present book is not a rounding error. It is a fifth of volume in the expensive column.
What the statement actually shows
On an interchange-plus statement, capture shows up as category names: retail, key entry, e-commerce, card not present, product 1, product 2. Add those lines. If keyed and e-commerce are a large share of volume, the "rate" you were quoted on in-person debit was never the rate on the whole file.
On a tiered or flat statement the buckets collapse. Keyed and e-commerce often land mid-qualified or non-qualified, or they disappear into one blended percentage. The cost is still there. You just cannot see which sales caused it.
Effective rate is the mix number: total processing fees divided by gross card volume for the same period. A store that keys invoices at the counter and a store that taps the same cards will not print the same effective rate on the same markup.
What you can change
You cannot talk Visa off its table. You can change qualification.
- Dip or tap when the card is in the room. Keying "because the chip failed once" is how retail volume leaks into key entry. If the chip fails, retry. Do not default to the PAN pad.
- Treat a virtual terminal as keyed. Phone orders and back-office invoices are card-not-present even if you know the customer.
- Do not confuse wallet tap with in-app pay. Tap at the terminal is card-present. Checkout in the app is e-commerce.
- Send the data e-commerce preferred asks for. On exempt debit, preferred retail is 5 basis points under basic when the sale qualifies. Ask which fields your gateway actually passes. Do not pay for a product that is switched off.
- Recompute after the ops change. If effective rate did not move, you moved volume that was already cheap, or markup ate the gap.
Capture is not a pricing model. Interchange-plus makes the categories visible. Tiered and flat hide them. None of those models erases the Visa row. If you would rather not hunt the rows by hand, upload last month's statement. As-billed first, including how each sale was captured.
FAQ
Why are keyed credit card transactions more expensive than tap or chip? Keyed sales do not read the chip or contactless chip. Visa lists CPS/Retail Key Entry on its card-present debit table and prices it like card-not-present: 1.65% + $0.15 on exempt debit, versus 0.80% + $0.15 for CPS/Retail, effective April 18, 2026. The issuer is paying for fraud risk it cannot see at the terminal.
Is an e-commerce fee the same as a card-not-present fee? e-Commerce is one card-not-present channel. Mail order, telephone order, card-on-file, and virtual-terminal keying sit in the same family. On Visa's April 18, 2026 exempt-debit table, CPS/e-Commerce Basic and CPS/Card Not Present are both 1.65% + $0.15.
Does a phone-wallet tap at the register count as card-present? Yes, when the phone or watch taps a terminal in person. That is a contactless card-present sale. Paying inside an app or a browser, even with the same wallet, is card-not-present.
Do regulated debit cards cost more when keyed or taken online? Not in interchange. Regulation II caps debit interchange for issuers with $10 billion or more in assets at 21 cents plus 5 basis points, plus up to 1 cent for fraud prevention, regardless of how the card is captured. Visa's regulated debit column is 0.05% + $0.21 on retail, key entry, and e-commerce alike. Markup and gateway fees can still differ.
How do I see card-present vs keyed vs e-commerce on my statement? On an interchange-plus statement, look for category names such as retail, key entry, card not present, and e-commerce. On a tiered or flat statement those buckets are often folded into one rate. Add every processing line, divide by card volume, and that effective rate is what the mix actually cost.
Sources
- Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, rates effective 18 Apr 2026
- Visa, Credit Card Processing Fees and Interchange Rates (merchant download page)
- Federal Reserve, Regulation II (Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing)
- Federal Reserve, Regulation II compliance guide
- Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, "Credit and Debit Card Fees Collected by U.S. Banks Rose in 2025," 9 Apr 2026
- Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Fumiko Hayashi, "New Data on Card-Present and Card-Not-Present Fraud Rates in the United States," 25 Feb 2026
- Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, "2023 Interchange Fee Revenue, Covered Issuer Costs, and Covered Issuer and Merchant Fraud Losses Related to Debit Card Transactions" (last update 7 Jan 2026)
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "How to Calculate Credit Card Processing Fees," 4 Jun 2026
Questions about how this applies to your business?
Talk it through