7 Mistakes You’re Making with Merchant Interchange Fees (and How Larecoin Fixes Them)

Stop throwing money away. Every time a customer swipes, dips, or taps a credit card at your business, a piece of your profit vanishes. We aren’t talking about the visible "flat fee." We’re talking about the labyrinth of merchant interchange fees that traditional banks use to bleed your bottom line.

In 2026, relying on legacy payment rails is a choice to be less profitable. As Daniel Fainman often says, merchant freedom starts with owning your rails. If you’re still using traditional processors: or even outdated crypto gateways like NOWPayments: you’re likely making these seven critical mistakes.

Here is how Larecoin disrupts the status quo.

1. Treating Your Statement Like a Terms & Conditions Pop-up

Most merchants treat their monthly processing statement like a software update: they scroll to the bottom and look at the final number. This is a massive error.

Interchange fees are not static. There are over 300 different levels based on card type (Rewards, Corporate, International), industry, and how the card was processed. When you don't audit your statements, you’re flying blind. Processors count on your laziness to hide "non-qualified" surcharges.

The Larecoin Fix: Transparency is baked into the code. With Larecoin Web3 global payments, there are no "hidden levels." A transaction is a transaction. You see exactly what happens on the Solana blockchain in real-time. No 20-page PDF statements required.

2. Falling for the "Interchange Plus" Illusion

Processors love to market "Interchange Plus" pricing as the gold standard of transparency. They claim they pass the base cost to you with just a "small" markup.

The reality? They often pad the base rate. If Visa charges 1.65%, your processor might bill you 1.85% as the "base" and then add their 0.20% markup on top. You’re being double-dipped.

The Larecoin Fix: We eliminate the middleman entirely. By using LUSD (the Larecoin stablecoin) or native LARE tokens, you bypass the Visa/Mastercard interchange network. You pay gas fees: which on Solana are fractions of a cent: and that’s it. No markups. No padding.

3. Paying the "Settlement Lag" Tax

Traditional finance (TradFi) is slow by design. Banks hold your money for 2–3 business days because they want to earn interest on your revenue before they give it to you. If you want "Instant Settlement," they charge you another 1% or more.

Think about that: you are paying a fee to access money you already earned.

The Larecoin Fix: Instant means instant. When a customer sends a payment through the Larecoin ecosystem, it hits your self-custody wallet in seconds. You don't ask for permission to use your funds. You don't pay for "fast access." It’s yours immediately.

4. Ignoring Transaction Downgrades (Missing Metadata)

B2B merchants get crushed by this. If you don't submit Level II and Level III data: like sales tax or accounting codes: Visa and Mastercard "downgrade" the transaction to a higher fee category. You might think you're paying 1.5%, but because your terminal didn't send a zip code, you’re suddenly paying 2.7%.

The Larecoin Fix: NFT Receipts. Larecoin uses receivable tokens and NFT receipts to attach rich metadata to every transaction. Because this data is immutable and stored on-chain, there is no "downgrading" of trust. The transaction carries all necessary info for accounting and verification without triggering a fee hike.

5. Trusting Custodial Gateways (The NOWPayments/CoinPayments Trap)

Many merchants think they’ve solved the fee problem by moving to crypto, but they use platforms like NOWPayments or CoinPayments. These are custodial "middlemen" in crypto clothing.

If you use a custodial gateway, you don't own your private keys. You are subject to their withdrawal fees, their "internal exchange rates," and their potential for frozen accounts. You’ve just swapped a bank for a crypto-bank.

The Larecoin Fix: True Self-Custody. Larecoin is about merchant independence. When you set up a self-custody merchant account, the funds go from the customer’s wallet directly to your wallet. No one can freeze your Larecoin. No one can charge you a "withdrawal fee" to take your money off the platform.

6. Accepting "Friendly Fraud" as a Cost of Business

Chargebacks are the silent killer of retail. "Friendly fraud": where a customer buys an item, receives it, and then disputes the charge with their bank: costs merchants billions. In the traditional interchange system, the merchant is guilty until proven innocent, and you get hit with a $25–$50 chargeback fee regardless of the outcome.

The Larecoin Fix: Crypto transactions are irreversible. Once a customer sends LUSD or LARE for a product, the transaction is final. This eliminates the "chargeback" category of interchange fees entirely. For the first time, the merchant is protected.

7. Overlooking Global FX and Cross-Border Bloat

If you sell products globally, interchange fees are just the beginning. You also get hit with Cross-Border Fees and Currency Conversion (FX) markups. These can easily add 3% to 5% to every international sale.

The Larecoin Fix: Web3 is borderless by default. A customer in Tokyo pays the same gas fee as a customer in New York. By using larecoin.ai and our Solana-based infrastructure, you bypass the global banking correspondent network. Your international margins stay exactly where they belong: in your pocket.

The AI Edge: Larecoin.ai

We aren't just moving money; we’re moving intelligence. Through larecoin.ai, we are integrating machine learning to help merchants optimize their cash flow and predict inventory needs based on real-time on-chain data.

In the Metaverse, where digital goods are the new commodity, the old interchange model simply cannot function. Larecoin is built for this new reality. Whether you are selling physical goods in a brick-and-mortar shop or digital skins in a virtual world, our "push-to-card" and "gas-only transfer" features ensure you keep more of what you make.

Stop Being a Bank’s Profit Center

The traditional payment industry is a parasitic relationship. They provide the rails, and you provide the blood.

Larecoin changes the math. By switching to a decentralized, self-custody payment model, you eliminate:

• Interchange padding.

• Settlement delays.

• Chargeback fraud.

• Custodial risk.

• International FX markups.

Join the Larecoin Community and start your transition to the future of finance today.

Ready to fix your fee problem?

Check out our blog-posts-sitemap.xml for more guides on how to scale your business using Web3 payments. Or, dive straight into the discussion forum to see how other merchants are ditching the banks for good.

The marathon continues. One transaction, zero interchange fees, total freedom.

Let's build.