Large-Ticket Card Sales: What Visa's Schedule Says

Interchange is not your bill

Visa's schedule opens by saying merchants do not pay interchange reimbursement fees; merchants pay merchant discount to their financial institution, and that discount may bundle a variety of processing services. So every rate below is the floor your provider buys at, not the price you are quoted. The gap between the two is the only part anyone can negotiate, and it is why an interchange-plus statement is worth more than a headline percentage: it shows the two numbers separately. Ask your provider to show which program each large sale actually cleared in, alongside the markup it added.

The fixed-fee programs, and who they are for

Three lines in the April 2026 Corporate and Purchasing table change shape at large amounts. Commercial Product Large Ticket lists at 1.30% + $35.00. GSA Large Ticket, in the purchasing-only table, lists at 1.20% + $39.00. In the commercial prepaid table, Visa Purchasing Prepaid Large Ticket lists at 1.45% + $35.00 for exempt cards. Compare those with the ordinary commercial lines in the same table: Commercial Card Present at 2.50% + $0.10, Commercial Card Not Present at 2.70% + $0.10, and Non-Qualified at 2.95% + $0.10. The pattern is that Visa shifts weight from the percentage to the fixed amount as tickets grow, but only inside the commercial card programs. There is no Large Ticket line in the consumer credit tables.

Visa Large Purchase Advantage is a buyer-side product

The Large Purchase Advantage table prices card-not-present sales in bands: $10,000 or less takes Visa Purchasing card rates, $10,000.01 to $25,000 is 0.70% + $49.50, $25,000.01 to $100,000 is 0.60% + $52.50, $100,000.01 to $500,000 is 0.50% + $55.50, and anything greater than $500,000 is 0.40% + $58.50. Card-present sales of every ticket size take Visa Purchasing card rates. Before treating this as something to chase, read the card rules. Visa's Core Rules say a Large Purchase Advantage card must be issued as a virtual account product on a credit account, limited to transactions in the commercial payables environment, and that a Large Purchase Advantage transaction must be processed in a card-absent environment with no cash disbursement and no ATM access. In other words your customer's bank decides whether this card exists at all. You cannot opt into it from the merchant side.

Straight Through Processing has its own ladder

The same document lists Straight Through Processing tiers: Tier 1 below $7,000 at 2.00% + $0.10, Tier 2 from $7,000 to $14,999.99 at 1.30% + $35.00, Tier 3 from $15,000 to $49,999.99 at 1.10% + $35.00, Tier 4 from $50,000 to $99,999.99 at 0.95% + $35.00, and Tier 5 at $100,000 and greater at 0.80% + $35.00. Note where the fixed fee appears: the jump from Tier 1 to Tier 2 is where the pricing shape changes. Visa's Core Rules add a gate here too. To participate in Straight Through Processing an acquirer must register with Visa and sign a Straight Through Processing Participation Agreement. That makes it a single, answerable question for your provider: are you registered for STP, and are my sales clearing in it?

Deposit timing on work that has not shipped

Large tickets often mean long lead times, and Visa's deposit rules are specific. A merchant must not submit a deposit for a transaction until the transaction is completed, or the merchandise or services are shipped or provided, or it has fulfilled the conditions of its agreement with the cardholder for an instalment, recurring or unscheduled credential-on-file transaction. The shipped-or-provided condition does not apply if the cardholder has paid an advance payment. Advance payments carry their own requirements: before completing one, the merchant must obtain the cardholder's express informed consent to an agreement covering the description of goods or services, the total purchase price, and the cancellation and refund policy including the date that cancellation privileges expire without forfeiture, plus the merchant's outlet location, address, email address and phone number. Keep that record; Visa requires the merchant to retain it for the duration of the agreement and provide it on written request.

You cannot make a card the loser by rule

A common plan on big invoices is to push buyers onto a bank transfer by capping the card. Visa's rules do not allow it as a condition of acceptance: a merchant must not establish a minimum or maximum transaction amount as a condition for honoring a card, with a narrow exception for a minimum on US-issued credit cards used at US merchant outlets. You can offer bank payment, present it first, and make it the default on the invoice. You cannot refuse a card because the amount is large. Illustrative example only, with made-up round numbers: on a $40,000 invoice a 2.9% blended card price is $1,160, while a flat per-payment ACH fee is a two-figure number whatever the invoice is. The arithmetic argues for itself without a rule that breaks the card network's.

What ACH actually offers on a large invoice

US Same Day ACH runs three windows a day. Files are due to the ACH operator by 10:30 a.m., 2:45 p.m. or 4:45 p.m. ET, settling at 1:00 p.m., 5:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. ET. The per-payment limit is $1 million today, rising to $10 million effective September 17, 2027, though Nacha notes that originating banks will decide whether to offer higher limits to their own originators. Two practical consequences for a high-ticket seller: an invoice above the current limit has to be split or sent as next-day ACH, and a same-day credit is not the same as a cleared payment, because debits can still be returned. Ask your bank for its own submission cut-offs, which are earlier than the network deadlines, and its per-payment ceiling for your account.