What Washington businesses pay to accept credit cards
We pulled the public numbers on card acceptance costs and put a Washington lens on them: what merchants pay nationally, how many Washington businesses it touches, and what it works out to for a typical shop. Every figure below is sourced, and the one estimate we run shows its math.
The headline: card fees just hit a record
U.S. merchants paid more than $187 billion in credit and debit card processing fees in 2024, an all-time high, and the figure climbed again in 2025. Those fees are not a rounding error. For most businesses that accept cards, processing is one of the largest costs they carry after payroll.
The rate is rising too. Visa and Mastercard, which together carry the large majority of U.S. credit card volume, moved their combined average interchange rate to roughly 2.36% in 2025. Interchange is only the first of three layers a merchant pays, so the all-in cost a small business sees is usually higher.
How many Washington businesses this touches
Washington is home to 695,695 small businesses, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy. That is 99.5% of all businesses in the state, and they employ about 1.5 million people, or roughly 48.7% of the private workforce. Nearly every one of them that takes a card pays into the totals above, month after month.
What it works out to for a typical Washington shop
Here is one worked example, with the assumptions shown so you can check it against your own numbers. It is an illustration, not a quote.
Take a Federal Way business running $40,000 a month in card sales, with about 80% of that on credit cards, at a 2.9% effective rate on credit. That is roughly $928 a month in credit card fees, or about $11,100 a year, before debit costs. Change the volume or the rate and the number moves, but the shape holds: a mid-sized Washington shop is often paying five figures a year to accept cards.
Where the money actually goes
Every card fee splits into three parts. Interchange goes to the bank that issued your customer's card and is the biggest slice. Network assessments go to Visa, Mastercard, or the other networks. The processor markup is the part a provider adds on top, and it is the part that varies the most from one setup to the next. When we read a statement, the markup is the line we look at first, because it is the one that is actually negotiable. Our guide to reading a merchant statement walks through how to find it.
What a Washington business can do about it
Two options are available in Washington, and the right one depends on your card mix. With credit card surcharging, a disclosed fee moves the cost of credit acceptance to the customers who choose to pay by credit card, which fits card-heavy and B2B businesses. With dual pricing, you post a cash price and a card price and the customer chooses, which covers every card type and fits counter businesses. Washington permits surcharging within the network caps and disclosure rules. A free rate analysis puts a real number on your own statement before you change anything.
Methodology and sources
The national fee totals and interchange figures come from industry reporting and are cited below. The Washington business counts are the SBA's most recent state profile. The one dollar figure we derive, for a typical shop, is a plain calculation from a stated volume, card mix, and rate, and it is labeled as an illustration rather than a quote. We do not publish savings promises; your result depends on your own numbers.
Sources: Merchants Payments Coalition / Nilson Report on 2024 swipe fees; Nilson Report, U.S. merchant processing fees 2025; U.S. SBA Office of Advocacy, 2025 Washington Small Business Profile.
Fair questions
What is the average credit card processing fee?
For a small business on a bundled or flat-rate plan, the all-in effective rate usually lands between 2.5% and 3.5% of card sales once interchange, network assessments, and the processor markup are added up. The exact number depends on your card mix and pricing model.
Why do the fees keep going up?
Card volume keeps rising and the networks raised interchange again. U.S. swipe fees hit a record in 2024 and rose again in 2025. It is one of the largest costs a merchant carries outside of labor.
Can a Washington business legally reduce these fees?
Yes. Washington permits credit card surcharging within the network rules, and dual pricing is available to any business. Both move some or all of the card cost off your bottom line when set up correctly.
Do these numbers count debit cards?
The national totals we cite include both credit and debit. Debit generally costs less per swipe. Our worked example below is for credit card volume, where the fees are highest.
Send one statement. Plain-English answer in 24 hours.