Interchange++ vs Blended Pricing for iGaming Explained

Two processors quote for the same iGaming card traffic. One says "2.9% flat". The other sends a rate card with three separate numbers and a margin of "0.35% plus interchange plus scheme fees". The second one is quoting interchange++ pricing, and for most operators it's the cheaper deal. You just can't tell that from the headline.

Interchange++ pricing shows you exactly what your processor pays out and exactly what it keeps. Blended pricing folds all of that into one number. The model you're on decides how much you can see about your card costs, and usually how much you pay.

This guide breaks down both models, shows where each one wins, and explains why the choice bites harder on gambling traffic than on mainstream retail. Facts verified as of October 2026.

What is interchange++ pricing?

Interchange++ pricing is a card processing model that splits every transaction into three separate charges: the interchange fee, the scheme fee, and the acquirer's markup. Each one appears on your statement as its own line.

Term: interchange++ pricing. Definition: A passthrough pricing model where the acquirer charges interchange at cost, scheme fees at cost, and adds a fixed, disclosed margin on top.

The three parts do different jobs:

• Interchange goes to the cardholder's issuing bank. Visa and Mastercard set it, it varies by card type, and the acquirer passes it through at cost.
• Scheme fees go to Visa or Mastercard for running the network. Also passed through at cost.
• The acquirer markup is the only part your processor keeps, and the only part you can negotiate.

The two plus signs are the whole point. The first marks scheme fees as a line of their own, the second marks the acquirer's margin. Our guides to interchange fees for iGaming and card scheme fees break down what sits inside the first two buckets.

What is blended pricing?

Blended pricing charges one flat rate for every transaction, whatever the card type, region or scheme. A processor might quote 2.9% plus £0.20 and apply it to everything a player deposits with.

The processor still pays interchange and scheme fees underneath. It just doesn't show you the split. It averages the cost across your expected card mix, adds its margin, and gives you a single figure. If your real mix turns out cheaper than its estimate, the processor pockets the difference.

Blended pricing is easier to forecast. You know your effective rate before the month starts, and a cost spike underneath doesn't touch you until renewal. The trade-off is that you're blind to what you're paying for, and you get no benefit on the transactions where interchange happens to be low.

Interchange++ vs blended pricing: which is cheaper for iGaming?

For most established operators with real volume, interchange++ pricing works out cheaper, because gambling deposits carry a lot of low-cost debit cards that a blended rate overcharges. Blended tends to win only at low volume or where the card mix is unpredictable.

Here's the mechanism. In the EEA and the UK, consumer debit interchange is capped at 0.2% and consumer credit at 0.3% under Regulation (EU) 2015/751, which applied from December 2015, and its retained UK version carried over by the Interchange Fee (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019. A blended rate of 2.9% sitting on top of a capped 0.2% debit deposit is almost pure markup.

Where blended earns its place is cost certainty. If interchange or scheme fees rise mid-contract, and scheme fees have been climbing for years, a blended rate shields you until your next renewal. On a passthrough model, every increase lands on you the same month. Which one you want is a genuine judgement call between transparency and protection.

What is interchange+ (IC+), and how is it different?

Interchange+ (IC+) is the two-part cousin of interchange++. It passes interchange through at cost but bundles the scheme fee into a single markup figure, so you see interchange plus one combined margin rather than three separate lines.

The difference matters because a bundled markup hides scheme fee movements. On full interchange++, a scheme fee rise shows up on its own line and you can question it. On IC+, it disappears into the margin and you never see it move.

My view: if a processor offers IC+ but calls it "interchange plus plus", ask them to itemise scheme fees separately before you sign. The naming is loose across the industry, and the word on the rate card doesn't always match what the statement does.

How does card mix affect interchange++ costs?

Card mix is the single biggest driver of what interchange++ pricing actually costs, because interchange itself swings hugely by card type. Capped consumer cards are cheap; commercial cards and cards issued outside the region are not.

The EU and UK caps only touch consumer cards issued inside the region. Commercial cards, and any card issued outside the EEA, sit outside the cap, and for cross-border traffic the fees run several times higher.

This is where iGaming gets hit. The UK Payment Systems Regulator found that after Brexit, Visa and Mastercard raised UK-EEA cross-border interchange around fivefold: from 0.2% to 1.15% on debit and from 0.3% to 1.5% on credit. The PSR set this out when it confirmed its competition concerns and proposed a price cap in December 2024 (consultation CP24/14), suggesting an interim cap of 0.2% on card-not-present consumer debit and 0.3% on consumer credit.

It later dropped that interim cap and, as far as I know, is still consulting on a methodology as of its 2025 review (MR22/2.8). So on an interchange++ statement, the cross-border interchange on your international players is still uncapped, and it's visible. On blended, you'd never know how much of it you were carrying.

Why does interchange++ matter more for high-risk iGaming merchants?

Because gambling traffic is heavily cross-border and card-not-present, which are the two conditions that make interchange most volatile. If you can't see the breakdown, you can't tell whether a cost spike came from interchange, scheme fees, or your acquirer quietly widening its margin.

A blended rate masks all three. One month your acquirer's underlying costs fall and your rate doesn't, and you never find out. On interchange++, you can audit the statement line by line and take the scheme fee question back to your provider with evidence.

That visibility is worth more in a high-risk merchant account, where margins are thin and every basis point on millions in deposits adds up fast. It's also why multi-acquirer and orchestration setups almost always run on interchange++: you can only compare two acquirers if you can see what each one charges. The payment gateway vs PSP vs acquirer guide explains who sits where in that chain.

How do you read an interchange++ statement?

Read it in three columns: interchange (a cost, not yours to negotiate), scheme fees (a cost, but worth auditing), and the markup (the only line your processor controls). If you can't find all three, you're not on true interchange++.

• Confirm the markup is a fixed basis-point rate plus a fixed per-item fee, not a percentage that drifts with the transaction.
• Check that scheme fees are itemised, not folded into the margin. If they're not, it's IC+, not IC++.
• Watch for "non-qualified" or "standard" downgrade buckets that silently reprice transactions that missed a data requirement.
• Track your effective blended rate month to month. A rising effective cost on a fixed markup means your card mix is shifting, not that you're being overcharged.

You can model what a pricing change or an approval rate shift is worth across your deposit volume with our cost and approval rate calculator, and the payments glossary defines the surrounding terms if any of this is new.

Frequently asked questions

Can I switch from blended to interchange++ pricing?

Usually yes, at contract renewal or by moving to a processor that offers it. Established operators with steady volume have the bargaining power to ask for interchange++ and a disclosed markup. Smaller operators sometimes can't get it, because acquirers prefer the margin cushion that blended pricing gives them on low volume.

What happens if interchange or scheme fees rise mid-contract?

On interchange++, the rise passes straight through and shows up on your next statement. On blended, your rate is fixed until renewal, so the processor absorbs the increase in the short term and reprices you later. That protection is the main reason some operators keep a blended deal despite the lower transparency.

Is interchange++ pricing always cheaper than blended?

No. It's usually cheaper for operators with high volume and a lot of capped consumer debit cards, because blended overcharges those transactions. At low volume, or where the card mix is heavily weighted to expensive commercial and cross-border cards, a well-set blended rate can come out level or even ahead.

Do the EU interchange caps apply to gambling transactions?

Yes. The caps under Regulation (EU) 2015/751 are based on card type and geography, not merchant category, so there's no gambling exemption. Any consumer debit or credit card issued inside the EEA is capped at 0.2% or 0.3% regardless of the MCC. Commercial cards and cards issued outside the region are not capped.

What's the difference between interchange+ and interchange++?

Interchange++ shows three lines: interchange, scheme fees, and the acquirer markup. Interchange+ shows two: interchange, and a single bundled markup that includes the scheme fee. IC++ gives you more visibility over scheme fee movements; IC+ hides them inside the margin.

How do cross-border cards change my interchange++ bill?

A lot. Cross-border and non-EEA cards fall outside the interchange caps, and the UK regulator found post-Brexit cross-border interchange rose to as much as 1.15% on debit and 1.5% on credit. Because iGaming traffic is often international, a high share of foreign cards can push your effective rate well above the capped domestic figure, which interchange++ makes visible and blended does not.

Is a blended rate a rip-off?

Not inherently. It's a trade of transparency for simplicity and cost certainty, which suits some operators. It becomes a bad deal when the quoted rate assumes an expensive card mix you don't actually have, so the processor keeps a wide hidden margin on cheap capped cards. The only way to check is to compare it against a modelled interchange++ cost for your real traffic.

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