There’s a lot to keep track of when it comes to your merchant account. Understanding all of these fees can be a complicated task. Authorization fees, transaction fees, chargeback, and batch fees — these are all terms used in the merchant processing business. A common fee is a PCI compliance fee, but what is it, really?

So, what is a PCI Compliance Fee?

A PCI Compliance fee is a fee issued by the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards Counsel (PCI DSS), and is charged to the credit card processing service providers and organizations. Long story short, the merchant processor undergoes an evaluation to determine if the merchant is PCI compliant or not. In order to avoid these PCI compliance fees, you must be able to demonstrate to the merchant processor that you are compliant. This includes taking extra actions to protect and keep the private information of cardholders secure and away from public networks.

The catch is, even if your business is following the guidelines, you are probably being charged for an additional PCI compliance fee by the PCI Security Standards Council and is usually charged on a monthly or annual basis. The providers will charge the merchants a fee for this service, and this is a common frustration for merchants in all industries.

When it comes to evaluating such fees, contact your current provider to better understand these compliance charges. We urge taking action and doing the proper research before settling with a payment processing company. You can talk to one of our dedicated team members to look at your statement and determine if you’re overpaying such fees.

To learn more about our rates and services, call us at 888-498-1456. Our commitment is to provide better solutions for business owners of all sizes.