The short answer
A downgrade is when a card sale gets a higher interchange rate than the program it could have qualified for, because it did not meet that program's requirements. Visa's rules say a transaction must meet the qualifications in the Visa rules and the applicable rate qualification guide to get a particular interchange rate, and the acquirer must request the correct rate. Visa's US schedule (18 April 2026) shows the gap: an exempt debit card is 0.80% + $0.15 under CPS/Retail but 1.90% + $0.25 under the Standard rate. You can only verify downgrades on a statement that shows the interchange program for each sale.
How Visa qualification works
Visa's Core Rules (18 April 2026) describe interchange as a default transfer price between acquirers and issuers, and say merchants pay a merchant discount negotiated with their acquirer. Section 1.8.1.3 says a transaction must meet the qualifications defined in the Visa rules and in the applicable interchange reimbursement fee rate qualification guide to qualify for a particular rate, and that the acquirer must request the correct rate when it submits the transaction. Visa's US schedule lists the programs. The detailed US qualification guide is not part of the public documents we checked, so for the exact requirements behind each program, ask your provider.
What a downgrade looks like in the schedule
Visa's US interchange schedule effective April 18, 2026 lists these rows for an exempt consumer debit card, meaning one from an issuer not covered by the Federal Reserve's debit cap: CPS/Retail 0.80% + $0.15, CPS/Card Not Present 1.65% + $0.15, Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee (EIRF) 1.75% + $0.20, and Standard Interchange Reimbursement Fee 1.90% + $0.25. For consumer credit, the schedule lists Non-Qualified Consumer Credit at 3.15% + $0.10 across consumer credit products. For commercial cards, Commercial Card Present is 2.50% + $0.10 and the Non-Qualified row is 2.95% + $0.10. Moving from a CPS row to EIRF, Standard or a Non-Qualified row is what most people mean by a downgrade. A card-not-present sale on a card-not-present program is not a downgrade; it is the program for that channel.
| Fee program | Rate |
|---|---|
| CPS/Retail, Debit (exempt issuer) | 0.80% + $0.15 |
| CPS/Card Not Present, Debit (exempt issuer) | 1.65% + $0.15 |
| EIRF, Debit (exempt issuer) | 1.75% + $0.20 |
| Standard Interchange Reimbursement Fee, Debit (exempt issuer) | 1.90% + $0.25 |
| Regulated debit, each of the rows above | 0.05% + $0.21 (plus $0.01 for certified issuers) |
| Commercial Card Present (purchasing and corporate) | 2.50% + $0.10 |
| Non-Qualified (purchasing and corporate) | 2.95% + $0.10 |
| Non-Qualified Consumer Credit | 3.15% + $0.10 |
Debit from large banks is different
The Federal Reserve's Regulation II sets standards for the interchange fee a large debit card issuer may receive and allows a fraud-prevention adjustment; certain small issuers and some prepaid programs are exempt. In Visa's schedule, regulated debit shows 0.05% + $0.21 in the CPS/Retail, Card Not Present, EIRF and Standard rows alike, plus $0.01 for issuers that certify fraud-prevention compliance. So a regulated debit sale does not get a higher interchange rate for missing a CPS requirement. The Federal Reserve's page also lists a proposal to lower the cap, so check the current rule.
Common reasons a sale misses its program
Because the full qualification guide is not public, treat these as questions for your provider rather than rules: Was the card read by chip or contactless, or was it keyed? Was the sale submitted within the required time? Did a card-not-present sale include the data your provider says the program needs? Did a business or purchasing card sale include the data needed for commercial programs? Visa's rules also set maximum processing timeframes from authorization, 5 calendar days for other card-present sales, but a program's own timing can be stricter. Our Level II and III guide covers commercial card data.
How to verify downgrades on your statement
On interchange-plus pricing, ask for an interchange-level report that names the Visa program for each group of sales. Search it for EIRF, Standard and Non-Qualified rows, note the volume in each, and ask your provider what requirement those sales missed. Illustrative example only, with made-up round numbers: $2,000 of exempt debit sales landing on the Standard row instead of CPS/Retail costs about $22 more in percentage interchange for the month, plus $0.10 more per transaction. On tiered pricing you usually cannot see this, because the statement shows provider buckets rather than Visa programs; our non-qualified surcharge guide covers that case.
Fixing the cause
Once you know which programs your downgraded sales landed in, work with your provider on the cause: terminal settings, the data your gateway sends, or how soon batches close. Re-check the same report the next month. Some sales will always carry higher rates because of the card type or channel; the goal is to stop sales landing on EIRF, Standard or Non-Qualified rows when they could have qualified for a CPS program.
About the rate tables on this page: Visa is the only card network that publishes a public US merchant interchange schedule, so the rate tables on this site are Visa-only. Mastercard, American Express and Discover do not publish an equivalent US merchant schedule, and their rates are neither shown above nor implied by these figures. Ask your processor for the rates that apply to each network on your account.
Key takeaways
- Visa requires a sale to meet a program's qualifications to earn that interchange rate
- EIRF, Standard and Non-Qualified rows cost more than CPS rows in Visa's schedule
- Regulated debit carries the same interchange across those rows
- Verify downgrades on an interchange-level report, not a tiered statement
Related guides
- Non-Qualified Surcharges: Finding and Removing the Line
- Batch Fees: What Closing a Batch Costs and What It Controls
- Tiered Pricing: The Structure Built to Be Unauditable
- Visa Interchange Rates in the US: How to Read the Schedule
- Level II and III Card Data: How B2B Interchange Works
- Regulation II: Debit Interchange Caps (Durbin) Explained
- Retail Credit Card Processing: What a Store Pays
- POS vs Payment Processing: Two Bills, Two Contracts
- Full-Service Restaurant Payments: Tabs and Tips
Sources
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