Fee Structure for iTransact's
Market America E-Commerce Package

Fees may be higher for Elavon (Nova) merchant accounts, i.e., accounts established prior to the February 2002 Leadership School that have not subsequently changed processors. (See Who's Who?)

Setup/Service Fees

One-Time Application/Setup: FREE!    Originally $200.00
This fee was reduced to $100-$150, then waived entirely beginning with applications received in February, 2007. Application fees paid prior to that remain non-refundable, as was stated in the application instructions.

Monthly Service Fee: Only $9.95!   Originally $69.95
After a reduction to $25.00, this fee was dropped all the way to $9.95 beginning with the service month of February, 2007. This $9.95 is drafted from your checking account the first business day of each month.

Monthly Statement: FREE!
Near the beginning of each month, the merchant account processing bank mails you a statement which details all fees for the previous month. For this, most merchants pay a statement fee of $5.00 to $10.00 per month. This fee has been waived, however, for Market America distributors.

  • The Monthly Service Fee (above) may be listed on your billing statement as a "statement fee" rather than a "service fee." This is to simplify billing and is not an additional fee.

    Transactions-by-Telephone Service: FREE!   Originally $5.00/month
    This is for the additional capability of processing transactions by telephone and has been included free since February, 2007. Service details.

    Annual Membership: FREE!
    Many merchant account providers charge a membership fee, often up to $100 per year. No such fee is assessed to Market America distributors.

    Transaction-Related Fees

    Authorization Fee: 31 cents
    This is a flat fee for each attempted card transaction (charge, credit, or void) and each batch settlement. A batch settlement is the aggregation of transactions for deposit into (or withdrawal from) your checking account, and automatically occurs once on each business day for which you have one or more successful transactions.

    AVS Fee: 5 cents
    This is a flat fee for each attempted purchase. AVS (Address Verification Service) is used to inform you whether the address and zip code your customer provided match the information on file with his/her credit card bank.

    Visa/MasterCard Discount Rate: 2.37%    Compare MA's non-iTransact rate: 3.00%
    This is a percentage-of-transaction-amount fee for each Visa or MasterCard charge or credit. For example, on a $100.00 purchase, a 2.37% discount rate yields a fee of $2.37.

  • This discount rate is for what Visa/MasterCard deem qualified transactions. Most transactions are qualified. However, some transactions (e.g., purchases made with rewards cards) are deemed mid-qualified; the Discount Rate on these is an additional 0.8%. Other transactions (e.g., purchases made with corporate cards or foreign cards) are deemed non-qualified; the Discount Rate on these is an additional 1.5%.
  • Note that MA distributors who don't have iTransact are charged 3.00% by MA for each credit card sale run through their portal. Due to this fee alone, distributors can actually save money by having iTransact.

    Monthly Minimum: None    Formerly $10.00
    Most merchants are required to pay a $25 monthly minimum of Visa/MasterCard Discount Rate fees. This amount was initially lowered to $10 - and now has been waived entirely - for Market America distributors.

    Discover and American Express Fees   

  • Discover's fee structure is virtually identical to Visa & MasterCard's, and there is no additional monthly fee for Discover Card acceptance. In addition, iTransact has arranged with Discover to waive its standard $25 Membership Fee for Market America distributors.
  • American Express typically charges merchants a minimum of $5.95/month to accept American Express cards. Because of this charge, iTransact does not automatically set up distributors to accept American Express, but if you'd like to do so we'll gladly assist. Please contact American Express Merchant Services at 800-528-5200 for rates and to apply. Once you have obtained an American Express merchant number, please contact iTransact so that we can add it to your payment gateway/virtual terminal.

    Special Circumstances Fees

    Checking Account Change
    If you change the checking account associated with your merchant account (i.e., your checking used for deposit of your customers' payments and withdrawal of fees), iPayment will charge a $25 processing fee to the new account.

    Chargeback
    If a cardholder contacts his/her bank saying a charge from you is erroneous, the bank may reverse (charge back) the transaction. In that scenario, iPayment assesses a fee of $25. In some cases involving MasterCard chargebacks, MasterCard may assess an additional $50 handling fee.

    Voice Authorization
    The iTransact virtual terminal (included in your E-Commerce package) eliminates your need to call the processing bank for card authorization assistance. If you do call the bank for such assistance, however, they bill "voice authorization" fees. Please contact iTransact for more details.

    Early Termination
    Market America distributors receive special "term and termination" consideration. Whereas most merchant account agreements are for a term of two to three years (with substantial penalties for early termination), iPayment's merchant agreement for Market America distributors has been specifically rewritten to include no termination penalty at any time.

    Account Reactivation
    If you close your merchant account and subsquently would like to reopen it, iPayment first will need to collect any fees you may have left unpaid on your previous account. Once the account is reinstated, they may also assess a $25 account reactivation fee.