Services
In addition to the CardTraq platforms, we offer tailored card profitability engagements leveraging our expert practitioners through our consulting partner organization, CRG. There are 6 core services we offer:
Network Fee Review (for issuers, acquirers, & ISOs)
Overview: This service involves a comprehensive review of the client’s network fees over the past year. We analyze invoices, fee structures, and incentives to identify discrepancies, unnecessary costs, and potential billing errors.
Benefits: Clients gain transparency over their fee structure, enabling them to remove unnecessary costs and challenge inappropriate charges. This assessment improves budgeting accuracy, helps in planning product profitability, and informs strategic decisions like network selection or contract negotiations.
Our Network Fee Optimization service typically yields 10%-20% cost savings for issuers and acquirers
Interchange Fee Review (for acquirers & ISOs)
Overview: Designed for acquirers and ISOs, this review focuses on optimizing interchange fees. It includes a detailed analysis of transaction types, merchant and product setups, and operational processes to ensure accurate interchange categorization and minimize costs.
Benefits: Clients can reduce their interchange costs, widen margins, and enhance pricing competitiveness. With greater visibility into interchange fees, clients can prevent unnecessary expenses and improve the profitability of merchant portfolios.
Our Interchange Fee Review typically yields 5%-10% cost savings.
Pricing Efficacy Review (for acquirers & ISOs)
Overview: Our Pricing Efficacy Review helps acquirers evaluate how effectively they recover network and interchange fees from merchants. The review combines granular analysis of past billing and cost data with defensible allocation models to identify under- or over-recovery at the merchant level.
Benefits: The review pinpoints margin leakage, informs re-pricing strategies, and strengthens pricing transparency. By mapping actual costs to merchant charges, acquirers can optimize profitability, ensure compliance, and reduce manual billing effort.
Cost Allocation Service (for issuers, acquirers & ISOs)
Overview: This one-time or ongoing managed service offers a structured approach to allocating network fees to merchants or programs. The model ingests fee data, applies customizable allocation rules, and provides transparent calculations for each merchant or volume category.
Benefits: The cost allocation model maximizes cost recovery, improves profitability, and ensures consistent fee allocation practices. Clients benefit from increased visibility and reduced manual intervention, which enhances operational efficiency and supports defensible pricing for merchants.
Merchant Pricing Model (for acquirers & ISOs)
Overview: Our Merchant Pricing Model allows acquirers and ISOs to price merchants accurately by integrating various pricing structures (e.g., blended, interchange++, etc.) with a robust set of revenue and cost drivers, including network fees, interchange, and operational expenses.
Benefits: This model enables consistent, data-driven pricing decisions by calculating accurate P&L and KPIs for each merchant. The tool’s flexibility helps clients adjust assumptions and gain insights into merchant profitability, allowing for competitive and transparent pricing.
Network Incentive Agreement Support (for issuers)
Overview: CRG provides expert, end-to-end support for issuers renegotiating or selecting between Visa and Mastercard incentive agreements. We analyze the full net cost of operating with each network — including fees, incentives, and interchange — and help clients navigate the commercial, financial, and strategic implications of each option.
Benefits: Our structured process ensures issuers make informed, data-driven decisions when securing or renewing network deals. We deliver custom operating models, benchmark key terms, evaluate trade-offs under different growth and performance scenarios, and support negotiations through to agreement finalization.
