How much commission for VISA/Mastercard and other credit card companies

I'm considering starting a small business

If I accept credit cards, how much will it cost me in commission and other costs ?

Is it a % or a fixed amount per transaction ? Does it vary from one credit card to another ?

Also when a retailer gets paid by credit card, when does the retailer get paid by the credit card company ?

I used to be with AIB merchant services for my merchant account.

For all merchant accounts there is a monthly fixed charge of €25 + VAT. For credit cards such as Mastercard and Visa they charge 2.5% of the value. For debit cards it is €0.25 flat regardless of the transaction value. These fees are invoiced each month and are collected by direct debit. You receive the full amount of the sales into your accoount.

As for when you get paid, if you bank with AIB you get your money the next working day after the transaction is uploaded to AIB. This happens at 3am each day. Your previous days sales are stored in the terminal and are uploaded each day at 3am. So say you sell €500 on Monday,it gets uploaded at 3am on Tuesday and you have your money Wednesday morning. Weekends will add a day to the process.

I was with AIB for many years up until last week. My main business bank is BOI. I was paying 2.75% on credit transactions and .25c on laser, but no monthly rental fee. In the last month they introduced a rental charge of €20 plus vat.

I changed immediately to BOI where the rental is €15 pm and 1.5% commission and 15c for laser. I also now have the benefit of the money being in my bank next day instead of a 3-4 day delay when I was with AIB as it had to cross banks.(This is something you need to consider..Fridays takings used to hit my account the following Wed or Thurs)..

Seems to me that there is a deal to be done with all these Merchant Providers.. shop around...The rates can vary too due to the amount of transactions etc.. that you process. I also much prefer the Elavon(BOI) terminal - far quicker to process the transaction and much more user friendly for staff.

I am actually better off paying a rental to BOI than when I was paying nothing to AIB because of the reduction in commission charges.

Ps I batch my transactions manually at the end of each working day at say 6pm. With BOI I have the funds in my account the next day.