The short answer
When a customer pays with a card issued outside your country, the card networks add cross-border and, where currencies differ, conversion assessments. These typically add 0.40% to 1.00% on top of ordinary interchange. On flat-rate pricing they are invisible; on interchange-plus they appear as their own lines.
Who this hits hardest
Tourist destinations, border towns, hotels, eCommerce sellers shipping internationally, and any Canadian merchant serving US visitors or vice versa. Some of these businesses run 20-40% foreign-issued card volume without knowing it.
What to do about it
First, measure it — you cannot manage a cost you cannot see. Then price accordingly: a business with heavy foreign card volume needs interchange-plus so the pass-through is visible, and may need multi-currency settlement.
Key takeaways
- Foreign-issued cards carry genuine extra network cost
- Flat-rate plans absorb and hide it in the blend
- Measure your foreign card share before choosing a structure
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