In-person rates are the chip-or-tap rows on the network tables. eCommerce rates are the card-not-present rows. The second set is higher because the issuer cannot inspect the card. Visa's U.S. interchange tables, effective April 18, 2026, price that gap in the open: exempt consumer debit at 0.80% + $0.15 for CPS/Retail versus 1.65% + $0.15 for CPS/e-Commerce Basic. That is wholesale, paid to the issuing bank. A website also adds a payment gateway, plus Address Verification (AVS) and often 3-D Secure 2. Those are cost and fraud tools, not decorations, and they are not a coupon off interchange. Compare the full stack with effective rate: total processing fees divided by card volume for the same month.
Typical 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 and the extra e-commerce tools move the layers inside it.
Two channels, not two processors
In-person means the cardholder, the card or wallet, and the terminal are in the same place. Dip the chip or tap contactless. A phone-wallet tap at the register is still in-person.
eCommerce 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. The same wallet paying inside a browser is e-commerce, not a tap.
Keyed at a counter is a third bucket. Visa lists CPS/Retail Key Entry on the card-present table and prices exempt debit like card-not-present. Presence of a person is not a chip read. The capture split is card-present vs keyed vs e-commerce.
Interchange is one of three layers. Assessments are network dues. Markup is the only layer anyone competes on. Changing channels does not waive the plus.
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 that includes this layer plus assessments and markup (Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, 18 Apr 2026). Confirm the category names on your statement.
Exempt consumer debit (small issuers, not under the Durbin cap):
| Channel | Visa program | Interchange | On a $100 sale |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chip or tap, retail | CPS/Retail, Debit | 0.80% + $0.15 | $0.95 |
| Website, basic | CPS/e-Commerce Basic, Debit | 1.65% + $0.15 | $1.80 |
| Website, preferred retail | CPS/e-Commerce Preferred Retail, Debit | 1.60% + $0.15 | $1.75 |
Preferred e-commerce is 5 basis points under basic when the sale qualifies. That is data and authentication, not a coupon the processor invented. Fail the program rules and the debit table lists Standard at 1.90% + $0.25.
Consumer credit, "All Other Products" (the basic consumer credit column, not Signature or Infinite):
- Card-present Product 2: 1.51% + $0.10 ($1.61 on $100)
- Card-not-present Product 1: 1.89% + $0.10 ($1.99 on $100)
Traditional Rewards: 1.65% + $0.10 card-present versus 2.04% + $0.10 card-not-present. Fail the program rules and both credit tables list Non-Qualified Consumer Credit at 3.15% + $0.10.
Visa also prints card-not-present incentives of -0.05%, -0.10%, or -0.15% for EMV token and Digital Commerce Authentication Program (DCAP) qualification (Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, 18 Apr 2026). Ask which of those your gateway actually sends. A 3DS badge is not an automatic 15-basis-point cut.
- CPS/Retail: 0.80% + $0.15
- No AVS or 3DS on the sale
- On a $100 sale: $0.95 interchange
- CPS/e-Commerce Basic: 1.65% + $0.15
- Gateway, AVS, and often 3DS sit on top
- On a $100 sale: $1.80 interchange
Why the e-commerce row is higher
Issuers fund fraud they cannot see. VisaNet data for U.S. credit cards in October through December 2024, cited on Visa's 3-D Secure guide, puts card-not-present fraud rates at 7.5 times card-present and at nearly 89 percent of payment fraud. The Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City (25 Feb 2026), using the Board's 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 on that book was 14.2 basis points. Networks publish a higher category when the chip is not read. You cannot talk Visa off that row. You can stop putting a present card into a remote bucket, and you can send the data a preferred or incentive program asks for. Everything else is markup.
The extra stack: gateway, AVS, 3DS
In-person capture usually lives in the terminal. eCommerce capture lives in software. The extra lines are real. They are not interchange.
Gateway. The pipe that collects the PAN or token and sends the authorization. A monthly access fee plus a per-authorization charge is common. Those dollars are markup, not a network assessment. A terminal sale still has a capture path. It often does not print a separate gateway brand.
AVS. Visa's Address Verification Service lets a card-absent merchant check the billing street and/or ZIP against the issuer file, with the authorization or as a stand-alone request. Visa's card-absent acceptance materials state that AVS can confirm addresses in the U.S. and Canada; issuer participation is optional elsewhere. The response is a match code, separate from the approval. A match does not make the sale card-present. CVV2 (the three-digit code) is the sibling check on the card. Neither is a cheaper interchange row by itself.
3DS. EMV 3-D Secure authenticates the cardholder before authorization. In the United States it is optional. On Visa, fraud liability can shift for fully authenticated sales (ECI 05) and for attempted authentication at a 3DS-capable merchant (ECI 06). Consumer disputes stay with you. A challenge the customer abandons is a lost sale. Processor 3DS fees, when they exist, are markup. Illustrative: $0.03 per attempt on 800 auths is $24 that month. It does not buy goods-not-received coverage.
Turn the tools on because they change fraud outcomes or qualification, then measure.
A worked month (illustrative)
Hold the shop constant: $80,000 in card volume, 800 settled sales, $100 average ticket, all exempt Visa debit. The rates below are published. The extras are labeled.
| Channel | Interchange math | Interchange | Share of volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| All chip or tap (CPS/Retail) | $80,000 × 0.80% + 800 × $0.15 | $760 | 0.95% |
| All e-commerce basic | $80,000 × 1.65% + 800 × $0.15 | $1,440 | 1.80% |
| Gap | $680 | 85 basis points |
Same tickets, same exempt debit cards, $680 more wholesale because the sales never hit a terminal. Assessments and markup still add after this.
Extras, illustrative only: in-person terminal support $40, no gateway. eCommerce gateway $25 plus $0.05 per auth ($40) plus 3DS at $0.03 ($24), or $89. Net extra is $49. Interchange gap plus net extra is $729 before assessments and the plus. Change ticket size or the extra schedule and the extras ranking moves. The interchange ranking on this mix does not.
Credit, "All Other Products": card-present Product 2 is $80,000 × 1.51% + 800 × $0.10 = $1,288. Card-not-present Product 1 is $80,000 × 1.89% + 800 × $0.10 = $1,592. Gap: $304, or 38 basis points, before markup and the gateway. Twenty percent of a retail book leaking onto the website is a fifth of volume in the expensive column.
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.
Walk one $100 regulated debit sale: interchange is $0.26, or $0.27 with the fraud add-on, in either channel. Markup and gateway fees still can differ. Credit is not capped that way, so the credit gap above survives even when much of your debit is Durbin-covered.
What the statement actually shows
On an interchange-plus statement, the two channels print as category names: retail, e-commerce, card not present, product 1, product 2. Add the in-person block and the remote block separately, then add gateway, 3DS, batch, and PCI. A sales-sheet "rate" compares a terminal row to a website stack.
On a tiered or flat statement the buckets collapse. eCommerce often lands mid-qualified or non-qualified, or it disappears into one blended percentage. The cost is still there. Effective rate is the mix number: total processing fees divided by card volume. A store that taps every card and a store that takes the same cards on a checkout page will not print the same effective rate on the same markup. 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 eCommerce credit card rates higher than in-person? The issuer cannot inspect the card. Visa prices that risk on the card-not-present table. On exempt consumer debit, CPS/Retail is 0.80% + $0.15 and CPS/e-Commerce Basic is 1.65% + $0.15, effective April 18, 2026. A gateway, AVS, and 3DS sit on top of that wholesale gap. They do not erase it.
Is paying with a phone wallet in-person or eCommerce? A tap at a terminal is card-present, even when the wallet lives on a phone or watch. The same wallet paying inside a browser or an app is card-not-present e-commerce. "Mobile" on a sales sheet is not a capture method.
Do AVS and 3-D Secure lower my processing rate? Not by themselves. AVS matches the billing address to the issuer file. 3DS authenticates the cardholder and can shift fraud liability when the cryptogram qualifies. Visa also publishes card-not-present interchange incentives for EMV token and Digital Commerce Authentication Program qualification. Ask which of those your gateway actually sends, then confirm on the statement.
Do I need a payment gateway for in-person sales? In-person capture usually lives in the terminal or POS. Online and in-app checkout need a gateway (or equivalent) plus an acquirer. A monthly gateway line is software. It is not interchange and not a substitute for a merchant account.
Does Durbin debit cost the same online and in-store? At interchange, yes. 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 capture. Visa's regulated column is 0.05% + $0.21 on retail and e-commerce alike. Markup and gateway fees can still differ.
How do I compare eCommerce vs in-person costs on my statement? On interchange-plus, add the retail rows and the e-commerce or card-not-present rows separately, then add gateway, 3DS, and monthly extras. Divide total fees by card volume. That effective rate is the comparison. A blended or tiered statement hides the split; the cost is still there.
Sources
- Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees, rates effective 18 Apr 2026
- Visa, Credit Card Processing Fees and Interchange Rates (merchant download page)
- Visa, 3D Secure: your guide to safer transactions
- Visa, Visa Payment Acceptance for U.S. Quick-Service Restaurants (card-absent AVS)
- Federal Reserve, Regulation II (Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing)
- Federal Reserve, Regulation II compliance guide
- 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
- U.S. Chamber of Commerce, "How to Calculate Credit Card Processing Fees," 4 Jun 2026
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