For many merchants, pricing is where payment performance stops being technical and starts becoming commercial. On paper, both Interchange++ and blended pricing can look simple enough. In practice, they create very different levels of transparency, control, and margin visibility.
If you are processing serious volume, the difference is not cosmetic. It affects how well you understand your acquiring costs, how much room you have to optimize routing, and how exposed you are to hidden pricing inefficiencies over time.
What is blended pricing?
Blended pricing combines interchange, scheme fees, and provider markup into one headline rate. It is simple to read, but gives merchants less visibility into what is actually driving cost.
What is Interchange++?
Interchange++ separates core pricing components — interchange, scheme fees, and provider margin — so merchants can see the underlying economics more clearly.
Why it matters
The more complex your payment operations become, the more valuable pricing transparency becomes. Multi-market businesses, higher-volume merchants, and teams with routing or optimization logic usually benefit from a clearer pricing structure.
What to ask
Before signing, merchants should ask what is included in the rate, how cross-border and commercial cards are priced, which fees sit outside the quote, and how reporting shows actual payment cost.
