Visa, Mastercard, and Discover Hold Off on 2021 Interchange Updates

Mar 30th, 2021

It is that time of year again! Each April and October (at least), the card brands (Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Discover) make updates to their rules, pricing, and fees. These changes affect all merchants that accept card payments. 

This year, the card brands announced quite a few changes, many of which would increase costs for merchants accepting e-commerce (card payments entered by the cardholder online) and Card Not Present (CNP or non-face-to-face) transactions. Some of the scheduled changes for 2021 had originally been slated to go into effect last year (2020) but were delayed due to the pandemic. 

Well, in a last minute (mid-March) announcement, most of the card brands are postponing many of their scheduled changes another year – to April 2022. 

Visa, Mastercard, and Discover are delaying most of their rate modifications until April of 2022. American Express is going ahead with their planned changes. Amex is adding interchange categories for debit cards and increasing their network acceptance fees and international fees. 

Because there have been so many last-minute changes this year, we will keep you informed as we receive updates. Stay tuned! 

You can reach us directly at clientsuccess@ascentpaymentsolutions.com or click to complete the web form here for solutions to help and stay connected.

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Thank you!
The Ascent Client Success Team