What is a Qualified Rate Fee?
A Qualified rate fee is the best possible rate that a retailer can get for processing a card. Qualified rates apply to transactions that are deemed to be very low risk. However, there is only one set of criteria for qualified transactions – the card must be present. Thus, an online retailer can never get the qualified rate despite the fact that many merchant providers advertise it. Processing rate fees are set by the bank that provides the merchanct account.
