Posted: October 22, 2026
Visa is introducing a new fee for businesses that receive funds from B2B virtual cards. Starting October 23, 2026, the Visa Embedded Payments Acquirer Fee will be 0.10% of all eligible Visa Commercial Solutions virtual card transactions processed through an embedded payments platform. The fee will be assessed at the acquiring layer in the payment processing chain, and it may be passed on to merchants by processors.
For companies that accept virtual cards as invoice payment methods, this means some transactions will incur an additional cost. It will not apply to all virtual card payments and regular consumer card transactions. The key question is whether the transaction involves an eligible Visa virtual card provisioned through an eligible embedded payments integration.
The update is vital for suppliers, wholesalers, contractors, and other firms that get paid for services through accounting software, procurement platforms, or other digital systems. Companies must know which transactions are covered, how much they will be charged, and whether other methods are available to save money.
Visa’s new fee is called the Visa Embedded Payments Acquirer Fee. This is a 0.10%, or 10 basis point, charge on qualifying Visa Commercial Solutions virtual card transactions settled via embedded payments integrations. This change takes effect for U.S. merchants on October 23, 2026.
To understand how embedded payments work, you first need to define the term. Basically, they let users pay or be paid through an application or software. For instance, companies can pay suppliers from their accounting or procurement system rather than initiating a traditional bank payment.
Embedded payment solutions such as Visa Commercial Solutions provide business payment services and products, including virtual cards which may be embedded in various software to facilitate business payments. These cards let businesses pay expenses through digital platforms, where transaction data helps the recipient reconcile the payment with an invoice.
The new fee applies only to transactions that are initiated on eligible virtual card accounts through Visa’s embedded payment integration. It does not apply to all card payments on a Visa card.
The rate is 0.10% of eligible transaction value. Despite the percentage being small, the fee could add up for large eligible transaction values and/or high transaction volumes.
So for example, if an eligible virtual card transaction is $10,000, a 0.10% fee equals $10. If the eligible transaction amount is $50,000, the fee equals $50. Businesses should double-check when dealing with their own providers.
The main point is that this fee applies only to a particular category of corporate payments. It does not apply to all Visa cards, virtual cards, or business software cards.
Eligible transactions include Visa Commercial Solutions virtual cards applied in qualified embedded payment flows. These are business-to-business payment arrangements in which card credentials are distributed through supporting business applications.
Virtual cards are digital representations of cards that businesses can use to make payments instead of a physical card, and may be issued to a specific supplier, payment, employee, or business purpose.
For instance, businesses may use virtual cards to pay for inventory from a supplier; the supplier’s card processing system processes the payment and settles the invoice.
Virtual cards can facilitate business payments by improving transparency and reducing manual processes, but the new fee prompts organizations to reassess their acceptance of eligible virtual card payments, particularly for large corporate buyer payments.
The fee applies to virtual card transactions that utilize Visa’s embedded payments integrations, which enable the use of payment credentials within business applications, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), accounting, or procurement software.
Consider a large company that uses procurement software to approve supplier invoices for payment. The platform could issue a digital card credential through one of its integrated Visa partners, initiating a transaction subject to the new fee.
By contrast, an ordinary Visa consumer card payment at a shop is not covered by this specific fee simply because the merchant accepts Visa.
A business may not be able to confirm from the existing card number or payment receipt whether the transaction falls under the new rule. The relevant detail is how the virtual card was issued/provisioned or whether it was processed through an eligible embedded payments integration.
If your business is accepting virtual cards from corporate clients, ask your payment processor if any of those payments would qualify. Also, if you process payments through a payments platform or accounts receivable system, contact them to see whether any of those transactions would qualify.
Do not assume that all virtual card payments are impacted, nor that a payment is necessarily not impacted based on it clearing through your typical payment terminals and/or processing systems.
The new fee is charged on the acquiring side of the payment process. In other words, it is a network-related fee that can be passed through to the business accepting the payment by either its payment processor or acquiring provider.
Visa does not necessarily invoice each supplier separately for the fee. It is up to your processor to determine how applicable charges are reflected under your merchant agreement.
Some providers will separately indicate the cost of the service as a line item. Some will include the fee as part of a larger grouping of charges or modify their fee schedules. It will depend on the provider.
Begin by reviewing your merchant processing agreement and the latest network fee notices you’ve received from your provider. Ask them to indicate whether the new Visa fee will apply to your account and how qualifying transactions will be identified.
If the cost is passed on to you, ask the provider whether it is identified as a separate line item on the statements and clarify the calculation method and whether it is applied to the eligible transaction amount or not.
Note that this fee is separate from other payment processing fees, which may include interchange, processor fees, or other network fees. In other words, a change to one does not necessarily mean a change to the others.
If you are getting virtual card payments from several corporate clients, ask the processor whether it can easily identify them in its reports. This way, you can instruct your finance department to analyze the affected payments and compare them with payments from other methods.
Before October 23, contact your payment provider and ask three specific questions about your business’s Visa Commercial Solutions virtual cards:
If the provider confirms that this change impacts your business, ask for a written explanation of the charge and when it will take effect to help you understand how it will affect your business’s finances. This can also help prevent the new fee from being confused with other processing fees in your statements.
The new fee gives businesses one more reason to compare payment options. For some suppliers, virtual cards are convenient, while for others, Automated Clearing House (ACH) payments may be more economical.
Neither method is necessarily better; it depends on the payment terms you agree to with your customer, processing costs, timing, and how easily you can match the payment to an invoice.
Virtual cards can be a good choice when corporate buyers want to pay from their existing accounts payable or procurement systems. They can facilitate digital payments and provide information that helps reconcile payments with invoices.
Some virtual card programs also offer payment controls and other features that may interest businesses. Depending on the terms of the arrangement, a supplier may gain immediate access to payment information in an accounts receivable system.
However, accepting virtual cards may involve card processing fees. Therefore, suppliers must carefully assess the costs and benefits of accepting such payments, including expedited processing and settlement, automated accounting and reconciliation, and improved cash flow.
The new Visa fee is another expense to consider if the transaction qualifies.
Visa has introduced a new Embedded Payments Acquirer Fee, which would impose a 0.10% charge on eligible Visa Commercial Solutions virtual card transactions settled through qualifying embedded payments integrations, beginning October 23, 2026.
The new fee will not be applied to every Visa payment or every virtual card transaction. The impact on a supplier will depend on the proportion of qualifying transactions and on whether the payment processor passes the cost through.
Businesses that accept B2B virtual card payments should contact their processors, review statements, and watch for the new fee on their accounts. They can also compare virtual cards and ACH and assess which payment method best suits their receivables.
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Possibly. Your processor may list it separately or include it in other charges. Confirm how your provider handles the fee.
You may be able to, dependingon your customer agreements and payment network rules. Check your terms before refusing them.
ACH is often cheaper for B2B payments, but costs vary by provider. Compare fees, processing times, and reconciliation needs.
