The short answer
Network assessments are fees the card networks (Visa, Mastercard, American Express, Discover) collect on every transaction that runs through their rails. They're separate from interchange (which goes to the issuing bank) and separate from the processor's margin. Networks collect assessments to fund network operations, fraud prevention, and technology infrastructure.
The current rates (2026)
- Visa: 0.14% assessment fee on every transaction. Plus an Acquirer Processing Fee (APF) of $0.0195 per transaction. Plus a Kilobyte Access Fee of $0.0018 per authorization (variable by payload size).
- Mastercard: 0.1375% assessment on credit, 0.1375% on signature debit, 0.00% on PIN debit. Plus NABU (Network Access and Brand Usage) fee of $0.0195 per transaction.
- American Express: 0.15% assessment (called the "International Service Assessment" or similar depending on program). Plus program-specific fees that vary by OptBlue vs. direct Amex.
- Discover: 0.13% assessment plus per-transaction fees similar to Visa.
Why they exist (and why you can't negotiate them)
Networks operate the authorization + clearing infrastructure. Every time your customer taps, the network routes the transaction through their switch, validates it against the issuing bank's database, returns an approval or decline, and later processes the settlement. Assessments fund this.
Unlike processor margin — which is negotiable with volume — assessments are set by the networks and passed through at cost. Your processor didn't mark them up (they shouldn't have, anyway), but they also can't reduce them. Take them or don't accept that network.
How they compare to other fees
| Fee type | Recipient | Typical % | Negotiable? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interchange | Issuing bank | 1.5-2.6% | No |
| Network assessments | Card network | 0.13-0.15% | No |
| Processor margin | Acquirer + processor | 0.15-0.50% (on IC+) | Yes (at volume) |
| Multiflow orchestration | Multiflow | Flat per plan | Plan-based |
The per-transaction fees add up at low AOV
The Visa APF ($0.0195) + Kilobyte Fee ($0.0018) + Mastercard NABU ($0.0195) feel trivial — but on a business processing 10,000 transactions/mo at an average $40 ticket:
- Total per-transaction fees: ~$380/mo (network layer) + $3,000/mo (processor's per-txn $0.30) = $3,380/mo
- On $400k volume = effective 0.85% just from per-transaction fees
At higher AOV ($120), the same 10k transactions (now $1.2M volume) absorb the fees much better — same $3,380 becomes 0.28% of volume. Raising AOV is one of the highest-leverage moves on effective rate.
Misc network fees that sneak in
Beyond the standard assessment + per-txn, networks levy small fees for specific scenarios:
- International surcharge: 0.60-0.80% on cross-border transactions
- Currency conversion fee: 0.20-1.00% for non-USD transactions
- Fixed acquirer network fee (FANF): monthly fee based on merchant volume tier
- Chargeback fee: $25 per chargeback directly to the network (plus your processor's own fee)
- Misuse of authorization fee: fee for authorizations that don't capture within specified windows
What to audit in your statements
- Find the "assessments" or "network fees" line. Should roughly equal 0.13-0.15% of volume.
- If it's higher than 0.17%, your processor is marking up assessments (shouldn't happen on IC+ pricing, sometimes happens on flat-rate).
- International transactions show additional cross-border fees — normal.
- FANF is usually a flat monthly line — make sure you're in the correct tier.
The multi-brand operator angle
Network assessments flow through regardless of how you structure your processing. Consolidating to one merchant account via multiflow doesn't change the assessment rate — but it does give you full visibility into assessments at the parent level instead of auditing 4 separate statements.