April 2026 Interchange and Network Fee Updates

Summary of Card Brand Changes Effective April 2026

Twice a year – in April and October – Visa, Mastercard, Discover, and AmEx release updates to their programs and fee structures. Additionally, both the NYCE Payments Network and PULSE Network have released updates to their PIN Debit programs as well.  For your convenience, below is a summary of the changes that will have the most impact on merchants. A complete list of the card brand changes can be accessed here.

As always, Wind River Payments believes in transparency of all association fees applicable to merchant processing costs and passes through these new fees to our customers with no mark-ups or changes.

Visa Updates

1. Changes to Visa Business, Corporate, and Purchasing Fee Level 2 Program

As part of the Commercial Enhanced Data Program (CEDP), Visa is eliminating the standalone Level 2 interchange fee program applicable to Visa Business, Visa Corporate, and Visa Purchasing credit transactions.  However, all eligible transactions that pass certain Level 2 and Level 3 data for commercial card transactions will be considered by Visa to be part of CEDP.

2. Changes to Support PIN Processing for Visa Account Verification Transactions

Visa is implementing changes to support PIN verification during the processing of card-present account verification messages. When PIN data is sent in an account verification message, the account verification response codes related to PIN processing are applied. All Visa Account Verification fees will support this change.

3. Updates to the Visa Digital Commerce Services and Tokenization Programs in the US

Effective April 1, 2026, Visa is updating the Digital Commerce Services fee and introducing a new card-present token fee for the US region.

The Digital Commerce Services fee will now apply to both domestic and international card-not-present transactions. The new card-present token fee will apply to tokenized domestic and international card-present transactions.

4. Revised Visa System Integrity Fees for Noncompliance International Authorization Reattempts in the Canada, CEMEA, and US Regions

Effective April 25, 2026, Visa is revising the System Integrity International Fee for excessive reattempts following these declines:

• Category 2: Issuer Cannot Approve At This Time
• Category 3: Data Quality, Revalidate Payment Information
• Category 4: Generic Response Codes

Also, effective April 25, 2026, Visa is revising the rate for the Issuer Will Never Approve fee (a System Integrity International Fee). This affects transactions that are declined with a Category 1: Issuer Will Never Approve response.

The assessment criteria for these fees remain unchanged; only the rates are modified. The domestic fee remains unchanged. The fee structure for all other System Integrity Fees remains unchanged.

This card brand fee will likely begin to appear on merchant statements as of June 18, 2026.

MasterCard Updates

1. MasterCard Introducing Fallback Avoidance Fee in the US Region

Effective April 1, 2026, Mastercard is introducing a new Fallback Avoidance fee in the US region.

The first billing by Mastercard is on April 5, 2026.

Fallback (or technical fallback) transactions occur when a card bearing a chip and a magnetic stripe is used at a chip-enabled terminal. It applies when the resulting transaction is completed with the magnetic stripe instead of with the chip. Fallback transactions pose a significant fraud risk to the overall payments ecosystem. The newly introduced Fallback Avoidance initiative encourages reduction to fallback transactions and strengthen fraud prevention. Mastercard will assess the fallback transaction initiative fee for each authorized fallback transaction.

2. MasterCard Introducing Force Post Transaction Fee in the US Region

Effective April 1, 2026, Mastercard is introducing a new Force Post Transaction Fee of nine cents per transaction in the US region. Force Post transactions are clearing transactions submitted without an approved authorization. Mastercard encourages merchants to obtain an authorization before submitting a transaction to MasterCard for clearing and settlement.

The first billing by Mastercard is on April 26, 2026.

The fee applies to each Force Post transaction cleared through MasterCard clearing system. Mastercard will assess the fee for Force Post transaction on First Presentment clearing transactions that cannot be matched to a preceding authorization.

3. Updating Services in the MasterCard Digital Enablement Fee in the US Region

Effective April 6, 2026, Mastercard is implementing pricing changes for the Digital Enablement Fee in the US region:

• The minimum fee per transaction will be updated to USD 0.025 for transactions less than or equal to USD 100.
• The maximum fee per transaction will be updated to USD 0.50 for transactions greater than or equal to USD 2,000.
• The Digital Enablement fee per transaction will be updated to 0.00025 times the authorization value and is applicable to transactions between USD 100 and USD 2,000.

The qualification criteria for this fee are not affected by these changes. Mastercard implemented a USD 2,000 maximum cap for transactions greater than or equal to USD 10,000,000.

Discover Updates

1. Modifications to the Rates for the Discover Hotel/Car Rental, US Consumer, PSL Interchange Program

With the April 2026 release, Discover will revise a number of the rates for the Hotel/Car Rental, US Consumer, Prime Submission Level (PSL) interchange program.

2. Rebranding Discover Product Type 001 in the US Region

With the April 2026 release, Discover is rebranding the 001 product type from Consumer Rewards to Core Plus. Current programs for the Consumer Rewards will be renamed to support these changes.  Current interchange rates still apply.

3. Modifications to the Discover Supermarkets/Warehouse Clubs PSL Interchange Program

With the April 2026 release, Discover is revising the criteria for the Supermarkets PSL interchange program. Criteria is being revised to remove merchant category code (MCC) 5300, Warehouse Clubs, from the list of eligible MCCs for this PSL. The MCC 5411, Supermarkets, will become the only valid MCC for this PSL.

The current ‘Supermarkets/Warehouse Clubs’ programs will be renamed ‘Supermarkets’

4. Modifications to the Discover Retail, US Consumer PSL Interchange Program

With the April 2026 release, Discover is revising the criteria for the Retail PSL interchange program by:

• Adding MCC 5300, Warehouse Clubs, as a valid MCC for this program.
• Removing MCC 8398, Charity, as a valid MCC for this program.

5. Modifications to Various Discover US Consumer PSL Interchange Programs (Card-not-Present, E-Commerce, E-Commerce Secured, Key Entry)

With the April 2026 release, Discover is revising the criteria for the following PSL interchange programs by removing MCC 8398, Charity, as a valid MCC for this program:

• Card Not Present
• E-Commerce
• E-Commerce Secured
• Key Entry

American Express OptBlue Updates

1. Modifications to American Express OptBlue Program Pricing for the US Region

Amex is updating current threshold tiers and adding new interchange programs for small ticket and micro ticket pricing for the Travel and Entertainment (T&E) and Other categories.

PIN Debit Updates

1. New PIN Debit Business Interchange Category for NYCE

Effective May 1, 2026, NYCE Payments Network is creating a new interchange category for commercial debit cards.

2. Sunsetting PULSE Small Ticket Interchange Category

Effective April 1, 2026, PULSE is sunsetting the small ticket interchange category. Transactions that formerly qualified for that rate will be assessed the published default rate.