by Matt Rej
Merchants on Nuvei’s tiered pricing plan pay way more than they should be on payment processing. And the evidence of this is sitting right in Nuvei’s own documentation.
We went through every line of Nuvei’s merchant pricing guide to see how they distinguish qualified vs. non-qualified transactions, and the results aren’t pretty.
They tell the same story that we often see with tiered pricing from any processor: most of your transactions will fall into the more expensive qualified rate bucket. But Nuvei’s story is presented in a way that you wouldn’t expect.
Even normal transactions that shouldn’t cost you more ultimately do. Let’s break it all down so you can see what I mean.
How Nuvei’s Tiered Pricing Works
Nuvei’s tiered pricing structure works a bit differently compared to other tiered setups on the market. Each transaction you accept falls into one of two categories:
- Qualified: Cheaper, and the rate your sales rep will likely lead with.
- Non-Qualified: Significantly more expensive, and what the majority of your transactions will be charged.
Normally, we see processors with three tiers: Qualified, Mid-Qualified, and Non-Qualified, with ascending rates at each level (Ex: 1.85%, 2.40%, and 3.05%). So it’s obvious that the non-qualified rate is much more expensive.
One thing that’s unique about Nuvei’s tiered pricing compared to other processors is that all transactions pay the qualified rate, and non-qualified transactions pay both rates.
The way that Nuvei presents this on contracts doesn’t look as bad initially because the non-qualified rate is in the same range as the qualified rate, and might even look lower at first glance. For example, your tiered contract might have:
- Qualified Rate: 1.45%
- Non-Qualified Rate: 1.35%
But this actually means your qualified transactions cost you 1.45% and your non-qualified transactions cost 2.80% (1.45% + 1.35%). That’s before network assessments are added on.
And as we continue below, you’ll see why the majority of your transactions will fall into this bucket.
The Numbers Behind Nuvei’s Qualification Criteria
Nuvei’s pricing guide includes specific transaction types for both Visa and Mastercard, and whether it’s Qualified or Non-Qualified.
We counted every single entry for both networks, and here’s what we found:
- 342 transaction types
- 189 (55%) are Non-Qualified
- 153 transaction types qualify for the cheaper rate
That alone should give you a reason to pause. But those top-line numbers don’t tell the full story.
If you look closer, you’ll see that the qualified column is heavily padded with debit and prepaid card transactions. These are card types that carry much lower interchange rates to begin with, and aren’t transactions that most merchants are worried about.
More specifically, 66 of the 153 qualified transactions are either debit or prepaid (just 1 of the non-qualified rates is debit). If you strip those away, you’re left with:
- 275 remaining categories
- 87 Qualified
- 188 Non-Qualified
- 68.4% of the remaining categories are Non-Qualified
In other words, if you eliminate debit/prepaid, more than two out of every three credit cards fall into Nuvei’s most expensive bucket.
Why Transactions Land in Nuvei’s Non-Qualified Bucket
Nuvei’s Non-Qualified list isn’t limited to one type of transaction. And to be fair, not every entry on the list is unreasonable.
Some represent traditional interchange downgrades. Others legitimately carry higher costs at the network and processor level (like international cards with currency conversion). Though the majority are largely classified because of the card product involved.
Broadly speaking, Nuvei’s Non-Qualified categories are influenced by:
- Card Type or Product Designation — Certain premium, high-spend, private label, and rewards cards.
- Commercial Programs — Business, corporate, purchasing, and other commercial classifications.
- How the Payment is Accepted — It’s common to see CNP transactions as non-qualified, but in addition to electronic and recurring cards, Nuvei also has several chip and card-present transactions falling into the Non-Qualified bucket.
- Where the Card is Issued or Settled — International, interregional, and foreign card transactions commonly appear throughout the list.
- Network Qualification Requirements — Transactions can fall into higher-cost categories because of missing data, security standards, authentication requirements, and other criteria.
- Specialized Interchange Programs — Mostly every program that’s non-standard gets bumped to the more expensive tier.
Non-Qualified Transactions You May Not Expect
The term “Non-Qualified” makes it sound like the merchant did something wrong.
Maybe the card was keyed instead of tapped or required transaction data was missing. Or maybe you didn’t settle the batch on time. Those are traditional reasons why a transaction might downgrade to a higher rate.
But there are also quite a few surprises on this list, as Nuvei classifies several everyday credit cards as Non-Qualified, even though those cards don’t necessarily carry higher interchange costs.
Visa Signature Cards
This is Visa’s mid-tier consumer credit card category. It’s a step above Visa’s Standard cards and may include some travel rewards cards or cash back, but these cards aren’t at the upper like Visa’s ultra-premium Infinite tier.
Translation: it’s an average, middle-of-the-road Visa card that a higher percentage of your customers likely carry in their wallets. No real reason for these to be hit with a Non-Qualified tag.
Business and Commercial Cards
Essentially every business, corporate, commercial, and purchasing card is considered non-qualified by Nuvei.
This includes card-present transactions, meaning the card was accepted in-person, carrying both a lower interchange rate and a lower risk of fraud.
While some of these transactions can be more expensive to process at the interchange level, broadly putting them all into the most expensive rate tier isn’t justified. Especially considering that B2Bs could actually qualify for reduced interchange rates through programs like Visa CEDP (assuming you were on a cost-plus plan instead of tiered).
Recurring Infinite Cards
Infinite represents Visa’s premium reward category. As a result, these cards do carry higher interchange rates than their Signature and Standard counterparts.
But if your business is membership-based, sells SaaS subscriptions, or operates in any form of recurring payments using a card on file, these premium cards are headed to Nuvei’s non-qualified tier.
Whereas if you were on an IC+ plan, you’d just pay the slightly higher interchange rate, and Nuvei’s markup would remain the same.
Non-Qualified Does Not Always Mean the Transaction Downgraded
This is one of the most important distinctions for Nuvei merchants to understand.
The card networks have their own interchange qualification requirements. A transaction can legitimately downgrade at the network level because it was keyed, settled late, settled without data, or failed to meet another requirement.
Nuvei’s qualification criteria is completely independent of that.
Visa and Mastercard first assign the transaction to an interchange category. Then Nuvei decides whether it belongs in the Qualified or Non-Qualified tier when they charge your account.
These are two separate steps. And the underlying interchange rate remains the same no matter how Nuvei ultimately categorizes it.
This means that Nuvei could consider a transaction Non-Qualified even if:
- It was authorized and processed correctly
- All required data was captured and submitted
- Settlement was on time
- It didn’t downgrade at the network level
- There were no additional charges imposed by the card network
So you can do everything right, and a transaction may still be non-qualified just because of the card type being used. And as we covered above, this is what’s happening with so many normal/average credit cards.
How Nuvei Merchants Should Handle This Problem
You don’t have to switch payment processors to avoid Nuvei’s non-qualified rates. And since so many merchants using Nuvei rely on integrated setups, switching is definitely something you’ll want to avoid as it would likely break other operations.
Instead, you just need to contact Nuvei and get them to switch you to cost-plus pricing.
While certain transaction types will still cost more (like premium, rewards, and commercial cards), your effective rate will drop because Nuvei’s markup will be much smaller.
With IC+, you pay:
- The wholesale interchange rate set by the card network
- Card brand assessments
- A clearly disclosed markup to Nuvei
But the markup doesn’t change. If Nuvei charges you 20 basis points per transaction, you just pay 0.20% on top of the wholesale rate, whether it’s an in-person debit card or CNP premium rewards card.
Getting Nuvei to change your tier rates is not the answer, and that’s often what they’ll attempt to do first before moving you to cost-plus. Don’t go for it. Dig your heels in and demand IC+ pricing. I know for a fact that it’s offered because we have dozens of clients on that structure right now (check out our Nuvei review to see how this pricing structure looks on real statements).
Final Thoughts
Nuvei’s Qualified rate may look competitive when it’s presented on a contract. But that rate doesn’t come close to telling you what most of your transactions will actually cost.
More than half of all categories are Non-Qualified. And once you remove the debit/prepaid, more than two-thirds of the remaining transaction types will fall into the most expensive bucket.
And those aren’t limited to obvious mistakes or unusual transactions. Nuvei’s Non-Qualified list includes recognizable consumer cards, card-present chip transactions, and recurring payments. You shouldn’t be paying extra for this stuff.
That’s why merchants should avoid Nuvei’s tiered pricing and request cost-plus instead.
If Nuvei won’t budge on your request, contact our team here at MCC, and we’ll negotiate directly with Nuvei on your behalf to ensure you’re getting fair rates.