What is the Visa Base II Transmission Fee?

Making sense of the assessment fees on your monthly credit card processing statement can be daunting for any business—especially since the name of each assessment isn’t always self explanatory. 

What’s even more confusing is that many assessments, including Visa assessments, have similar names. 

Visa Base II Transmission Fee definitely falls into this category. 

So if you see this charge on your statement and you’re not sure what it means, read on for an in-depth explanation. 

Visa Base II System File Transmission Fee Explained

The Visa Base II Transmission Fee, also known as the Visa System File Transmission Fee, applies to all Visa transactions, and it’s assessed at $0.0018 per transaction. 

This assessment applies to each Base II Clearing and Settlement for processing, and some providers bundle this assessment with other Visa fees—making it really difficult to spot and understand your statements.

For example, we’ve seen it bundled as part of the Visa Network Access Fee or included in the Visa Acquirer Processing Fee. 

Some processors bundle it with the Base II Network Access Fee and use those names interchangeably (even though they are separate fees). But the Base II Network Access Fee is $0.0025 per transaction, whereas the Base II Transmission Fee is $0.0018.

So if you see a somewhat general line item on your statement that says “Visa Base II Fees” for $0.0043, then there’s a good chance that it’s that your processor combined these two assessments. 

Is the Visa Base II Transmission Fee Legit?

Yes, this is a legitimate fee that’s charged every time you accept a Visa card. 

Like all assessment fees, the rate is set at the card network level (in this case, by Visa). That fee gets billed to the processor and then ultimately gets passed through to the merchant. 

Unlike processor markups and other fees, Visa assessments are non-negotiable and cannot be removed from your statement.

You May Not Always See This Fee On Your Statement—Even If Your Business Accepts Visa Cards

This is a fairly common scenario and a question that we get all of the time. If this fee is applied to each Visa transaction, why isn’t it on your statement? Or why is it only sometimes in your statement?

There are a few different reasons why this might be the case:

• Visa assessments are often billed quarterly, so you may only see them four times per year.
• Your processor may use a slightly different name for this fee or bundle it with other Visa assessments.
• If you’re on a fixed-rate, bundled, or qualified merchant agreement contract, then your processor likely isn’t listing each assessment fee. They just pay Visa what’s owed and charge you a flat rate (with a significant markup to cover these costs plus a profit for themselves). 

Whether it’s listed in your statement or not, Visa is 100% assessing the fee each time you accept a Visa card. So you’re definitely paying it at some point or another.

How to Know If You’re Being Charged Correctly For Visa Assessments

The easiest way to tell if you’re paying the right rate for the Visa Base II Transmission Fee is by locating the line item on your statement and verifying that it’s being charged at $0.0018 per transaction.

However, this is often easier said than done—for several reasons. 

As we’ve mentioned before, processors don’t always use the exact same phrasing when they list assessments on your monthly statement. And if they’re bundling it with other assessments (in addition to labeling it incorrectly), it can be extremely difficult to spot these fees. So figuring out if you’re being overcharged is an entirely different battle. 

Plus, the Visa Base II Transmission Fee is just one of the dozens of possible assessments you’ll see listed on your statement. So just because you’ve found this one and verified that it’s being charged correctly, you still need to verify all of the other rates to ensure your processor isn’t “padding” your assessment fees. 

That’s where our merchant consulting service comes into play. Here at MCC, we can audit your statements to identify overages, hidden fees, and cost-saving opportunities. If we spot any mistakes, we’ll work directly with your processor to get those fees corrected and help you get reimbursed. 

Even after the negotiations have been put in place, we’ll continue monitoring your statements on an ongoing basis to spot any further rate increases, inflated assessments, or bogus fees. 

There’s zero risk to you—and you won’t have to switch processors either. Get a free audit today to find out how much you can save.