by Matt Rej
Card networks make interchange-level updates throughout the year. But October and April often see the biggest changes.
So far from what’s been reported, this year is lighter than we’ve seen in the past.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s happening with each card network:
Visa
Most of what’s happening on Visa’s side leans toward commercial payments and authorization behavior instead of interchange on regular consumer credit cards.
Visa Embedded Payments Acquirer Fee (October 23): New 0.10% fee charged on Visa Commercial Solutions virtual card transactions that Visa tags as an embedded payment. These are virtual cards generated inside business software (ERP, accounting procurement, AP platforms, etc.) to pay suppliers.
Digital Commerce Authentication Program (October 24): DCAP officially launched back in April, giving select merchants access to interchange discounts on consumer-initiated CNP transactions when additional data is captured. In October, Visa is introducing new programs to support DCAP and expanding into Canada.
Visa Vehicle Rental Fees
Visa introduced two new car rental industry program fees earlier this year. But some processors (including Fiserv) are only starting to pass them starting in October 2026. So rental merchants may be seeing these for the first time:
- Flexible Extension Program Fee: 0.25% assessed on the portion of a cleared transaction that exceeds the approved estimated and incremental authorizations by more than 15%.
- Asset Protection Program Fee: 0.50% assessed when the authorization exceeds the clearing amount plus 15% by $200.01 or more.
Both fees essentially come down to how closely your authorization amounts match what you actually charge the customer.
New Response Code 83 (October 23): Exclusively for transactions it blocks during stand-in processing due to network-level fraud.
Response Code 57 (October 25): “Transaction Not Permitted to Cardholder” moves into Visa’s Issuer Will Never Approve reattempt program. Retrying these declines can now trigger System Integrity Fees, so recurring billing merchants should make sure their retry logic stops on a 57 code.
Dispute Condition 10.4 (October 24): For Other Fraud – Card Absent Environmental disputes, transactions on all credentials tied to the same card (including additional tokens) will now be eligible for liability shifts back to the issuer as long as they share common data elements.
Dispute Condition 12.2 (October 24): Visa is clarifying that dispute rights exist when a merchant processes a new transaction to correct an error instead of processing a reversal.
PCI Workout Period Reduced (January 1, 2027): Visa announced that it’s cutting the PCI DSS validation workout period from 12 months to six months for Level 1 and Level 2 merchants. That’s the window where a merchant is non-compliant but hasn’t been hit with any non-compliance assessments yet.
Mastercard
Crypto Card Transaction Fee (October 19): New 0.05% fee on crypto card transactions when cryptocurrency is the funding source. This doesn’t apply to every crypto card. Only transactions actually funded by crypto.
Wholesale Travel and Flex Interchange Programs (October 24): Mastercard is introducing new interchange programs for its Wholesale Travel Program and Mastercard Flex Program. Both involve B2B virtual card payments.
Decline Service Fee (October 2026): Increasing from 0.03% to 0.06%, with the minimum fee amount eliminated and the maximum amount dropping from $0.12 to $0.06. So the new rate is 0.06% with a $0.06 max.
Dispute Progressive Handling Fees (October 2026): Issuers can apply a $25 fee on chargebacks under reason codes 4807 (Warning Bulletin File) and 4808 (Authorization Related) for non-face-to-face transactions. If you successfully represent the chargeback with proof of valid authorization, the fee is refunded. But if the dispute goes to arbitration, an additional $50 fee may apply.
Transaction Link Identifier (December 1, 2026): December is the comply-by-date for Mastercard’s new TLID on recurring billing transactions. Assessments for non-compliance begin on January 31, 2027.
Discover
Discover has not announced any US interchange rate changes for this October. There was only one noteworthy update here worth flagging, plus a reminder of compliance ahead.
Card Account Verification Service (October 23): Discover updated its rules to require merchants that support CNP sales to support its Card Account Verification Service.
Offline Plaintext PIN: Must be removed from all Discover terminals by January 1, 2028. This was already removed from customer-activated terminals as of January 2026.
American Express
Amex hasn’t announced any OptBlue pricing changes for October 2026. The OptBlue threshold increase to $3 million from back in April is the biggest Amex change of the year for most merchants.
Looking further out, Amex says that after April 1, 2027, contactless transactions must be processed in Contactless EMV mode. Contactless transactions processed in magstripe mode after that date may be declined. So it’s worth confirming your terminals are set up correctly well before then.
Canada: Visa Interchange Updates (Effective October 24, 2026)
There are bigger interchange-level changes happening in Canada in October.
Visa is raising the annual Visa sales threshold for its Small Merchant Interchange program from $300,000 to $750,000, which effectively opens up lower rates to a lot more Canadian businesses.
At the same time, Visa is also reducing a range of domestic consumer credit rates:
- Classic, Gold, and Platinum Small Merchant Electronic: 0.77% to 0.70%
- Classic, Gold, and Platinum Small Merchant CNP: 1.30% to 1.20%
- Visa Infinite Small Merchant Electronic: 0.99% to 0.89%
- Visa Infinite Grocery and Food Retail: 1.15% to 1.05%
- Visa Infinite+ Standard: 2.35% to 2.20%
- Visa Infinite Privilege Everyday Needs 1.95% to 1.85%
There is one increase: Visa Business Credit Standard is going from 2% to 2.15%
DCAP also launches in Canada on October 24th. Offering a 10 basis point interchange reduction on qualifying online consumer credit transactions and a 5 bps fee (for a net savings of 5 bps).
Check Your Statement Against What’s Actually Changed
Most US merchants won’t see broad interchange changes this October. Anything above should pass through at cost and match the rates the networks set.
However, it’s common for processors to use interchange updates as an excuse to increase rates. We’ve already seen some vague notices sent out saying that discount rates and per-item fees may be changed “due to card brand updates.”
But the networks have nothing to do with how your processor sets your discount rate.
So you need to monitor your October 2026 statements closely. If there’s a significant increase anywhere, it’s worth closer scrutiny. As it’s probably not coming from anything at the network level and it’s something you can likely negotiate directly with your processor.