How much do international sales cost?

International sales work the same way as domestic sales, in that each international card will still have an underlying interchange-rate. The only difference when processing an international sale is that as the merchant, you’ll be subject to additional fees that are assessed directly by the card associations, to help cover the costs of exchange rate fluctuations and higher potential chargebacks in an international environment. These fees are commonly referred to as cross border fees. Like all card-assessment fees, Dharma always passes these through to you at cost – so Dharma doesn’t make extra money when you process an international sale. You can see all card-brand fees, here.

Visa/Mastercard/Discover/AMEX all have different fee structures for international sales, but they’re pretty similar. For the vast majority of international sales, the following surcharges will apply above the normal interchange rates that are assessed:

• Visa: 1.45% surcharge, consisting of a 0.80% International Service Assessment Fee and a 0.65% International Acquirer Fee
• Mastercard: 1.45% surcharge, consisting of a 0.60% Cross-Border Assessment Fee and a 0.85% Acquirer Program Support Fee
• Discover: 0.95% surcharge, consisting of a 0.40% International Processing Fee and a 0.55% International Service Fee
• AMEX: 0.40% surcharge, consisting of a 0.40% International Processing Fee