by Matt Rej
It’s important to understand every single line item on your merchant statement, including the smaller ones.
The Amex Acquirer Transaction Fee is one of those small charges that’s often glossed over because the total billed typically doesn’t amount to much. But if it’s being charged incorrectly, it could be a sign that your processor is overcharging you elsewhere, too.
What is the American Express Acquirer Transaction Fee?
The Acquirer Transaction Fee from American Express is a flat per-transaction network assessment that applies to every Amex sale you process.
Here are the key points:
- $0.02 per Amex transaction
- Applies to consumer credit, commercial credit, and prepaid sales
- Only charged to merchants in the Amex OptBlue program (less than $1M annual Amex volume)
You should be able to spot the fee on your statement fairly easily if you’re on an interchange-plus plan with all network fees transparently itemized, like this:
As you can see from this example, the merchant had 24 American Express transactions charged at $0.02 for this assessment.
The amount of each transaction doesn’t matter. In this case, they had $7,146.61 in Amex sales. But whether those 24 transactions totaled $200 or $20,000, the fee would still be $0.48.
Is It Legit or Junk?
This fee is a legitimate network assessment.
It’s charged by American Express to the acquiring banks and passed through to merchants on monthly statements.
But it’s only legit if your processor is passing through the cost correctly at $0.02 per transaction.
If you’re on the Amex OptBlue program and paying more than $0.02 for the Amex Acquirer Transaction Fee, it means your processor is padding your assessments, and this is likely just the tip of the iceberg. If they’re willing to overcharge you by a few cents here, they are probably overcharging you by thousands elsewhere.
Can You Negotiate or Remove the Amex Acquirer Transaction Fee From Your Account?
No, like all assessments, the AXP Acquirer Transaction Fee is set in stone and non-negotiable.
You can only negotiate processor markups on your monthly statements. Those are the discount rates, per-item fees, and other miscellaneous charges that make up the majority of your merchant fees.
Other Examples
Every processor has their own unique monthly reporting. Here are some of the different ways you might see this fee on your statement from a few popular payment processors.
Global Payments:
TSYS:
Fiserv:
Why This Matters More Than You Might Realize
I know what some of you are thinking right now: it’s $0.02, who cares?
Even if you’re processing hundreds of Amex transactions every month, the fee likely won’t amount to more than $10 or so, which feels negligible in the grand scheme of things.
The reason why you need to pay attention to this fee is because not everything on your statement is what it appears to be. If you skip over this charge, you might also skip over an Amex Support Fee, which is a junk fee that’s disguised as a legitimate network assessment.
Or if you’re on something like a simple change pricing plan instead of a true IC+ model, then your network fees might be bundled into broad categories, making it impossible to know whether you’re being passed through at the correct price.
It’s also possible your processor is charging you $0.03 or $0.04 for this fee. Again, you may not care if they are skimming a few extra dollars from your account each month. But this is often a sign of much larger increases hiding in plain sight. Potentially costing you tens of thousands per year.
The point I’m trying to make is this:
- You need to understand every fee on your statement.
- That’s the only way to know if it’s a legitimate charge or junk fee.
- And it will help you figure out if your processor is ripping you off elsewhere.
- Don’t overlook the “small” fees just because they’re only a few cents.
If you’re unsure whether this charge is being applied correctly on your account or if you have questions about other fees on your statement that you don’t recognize, we can help. Just contact me or my team here at MCC for a free audit. We’ll identify bogus fees and help you save money without switching processors.