Interchange
Visa
Visa uses interchange reimbursement fees as transfer fees between financial institutions to balance and grow the payment system for the benefit of all participants. Merchants do not pay interchange reimbursement fees; merchants pay "merchant discount" to their financial institution. This is an important distinction, because merchants buy a variety of processing services from financial institutions; all these services may be included in their merchant discount rate, which is typically a percentage rate per transaction.
   
MasterCard
Interchange rates and fees are established by MasterCard and are generally paid by financial institutions called "acquirers" that provide card acceptance services to merchants. Acquirers pay these fees to card issuers. Interchange rates/fees are only one of the many cost components of the Merchant Discount Rate (MDR) that is established by acquirers and paid by merchants in exchange for card acceptance services.
   
Debit
PIN Debit (Online)
PIN Debit transactions are initiated as a "debit" at the point-of-sale. At the time of payment, the consumer is prompted to enter their secure personal identification number (PIN) to electronically authorize the transaction and is not required to sign the receipt. The purchase amount is then immediately deducted from the consumer's bank account.
   
Signature Debit (Offline)
Signature Debit is similar to a credit card transaction, with cards that often have logos of major credit cards, that are accepted at the point-of-sale, initiated as a "credit" transaction, and require a signature. The purchase amount can take up to 2-3 days to deduct from the consumer's bank account.