Accepting card payments looks simple from the customer side of the counter and surprisingly layered from the merchant side. This Exchange Bank reference breaks down terminals, gateways, the three-part fee stack, and the PCI compliance rhythm that every card-accepting business eventually navigates.
When a customer taps a card, a chain of entities runs in the background: the merchant's terminal hands the transaction to an acquiring processor, the processor routes to the card network, the network asks the issuing bank for authorization, and the answer bounces back in under two seconds. Hours later the batch settles, funds flow toward the merchant's deposit account, and each party in the chain takes its slice of the fee. Exchange Bank plays the acquirer role alongside its merchant-services partner and handles the funding leg into the business checking account.
The practical version of that description is short. The business picks a terminal or gateway, signs a merchant agreement, and starts running cards. Settlement arrives next business day for most card types, with the exception of a small set of commercial card transactions that follow a different schedule. The part that causes confusion is the fee statement, because three separate cost layers land on the same page.
The first layer is interchange, which flows to the bank that issued the cardholder's card. Interchange is set by the card networks and published in open tables — the Federal Reserve's Regulation II disclosure covers the debit side of that schedule. The second layer is assessments, which flow to the networks themselves. The third layer is the processor markup, which is the only negotiable piece of the three. Exchange Bank discloses each layer separately so owners can compare competing proposals without being surprised by a bundled rate that obscures where the margin actually lives.
When the bank models merchant pricing, it looks at gross card volume rather than net deposits, and it separates card-present from card-not-present activity because the interchange rates are different. Businesses that quote total revenue across cash, checks, and cards sometimes get a proposal that looks high because the card-only slice is smaller than the top-line number suggests. Pulling a processor statement or point-of-sale report for the last three months gives the bank the right denominator to price against.
| Service | Best for | Fee framing | Typical deployment time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Countertop terminal | Single-location retail, offices, service counters | Interchange-plus with modest monthly | 3-5 business days |
| Wireless/mobile terminal | On-site service, pop-ups, mobile trades | Interchange-plus with device rental | 5-7 business days |
| Ecommerce gateway | Online stores and subscription billers | Per-transaction plus monthly gateway | 1-2 weeks for cart integration |
| Integrated POS | Restaurants, salons, inventory-driven retail | Bundled hardware plus processing | 2-4 weeks including staff training |
Every business that accepts cards is a PCI-covered entity. The scope of the annual attestation depends on how cards are accepted. A merchant that only swipes at a bank-supplied terminal completes a short self-assessment questionnaire. A merchant that stores cardholder data on its own systems — which is rare and almost always avoidable — completes a longer questionnaire and may need an external scan. Exchange Bank onboarding includes the annual PCI workflow and automatic reminders so the attestation does not slip.
Merchant services pair with deposits, lending, and treasury work. Card funds settle into business checking, idle reserves live in business savings, and automation layers on from treasury management. Real-estate and growth credit tie back to commercial real estate and SBA loans. Owner-side finances appear on personal checking, personal savings, money market accounts, home mortgages, auto loans, and personal credit cards. Digital channels include online banking, the mobile banking app, wire transfers, and bill pay. Reference pages round out with about Exchange Bank, leadership, the security center, the Exchange Bank login guide, and the help resources hub.
"We replaced two countertop terminals with the Exchange Bank setup last fall. The statement is actually readable now — I can tell where interchange stops and the markup starts."
Wesley Ainsworth Mechanic, Ainsworth Auto Repair · Cloverdale, CA
Merchant fees split into three layers: the interchange paid to the card-issuing bank, the scheme assessments paid to the card networks, and the processor markup. Exchange Bank discloses each layer rather than combining them into a single flat rate, which helps owners compare offers apples-to-apples.
Countertop chip-and-tap terminals, wireless terminals for mobile businesses, and integrated point-of-sale tablets all sit in the Exchange Bank merchant catalog. Ecommerce customers run through a hosted gateway or an API-based integration, depending on the cart platform.
A basic countertop terminal can be deployed in three to five business days after the merchant application is approved. Ecommerce gateway integrations commonly take one to two weeks because they require cart configuration. Integrated point-of-sale installs can run two to four weeks depending on complexity.
The Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard governs how merchants handle card data. Most small merchants satisfy PCI through a self-assessment questionnaire supplied by the processor each year, paired with the use of certified terminals and tokenized gateways. Exchange Bank provides the SAQ workflow with onboarding.
A DBA change is usually an amendment on the existing merchant account. A full legal-entity change such as a conversion from sole proprietor to LLC typically requires a new merchant application because the account is tied to the taxpayer identification number.