Credit Vouchers: Refunds Have Their Own Interchange
Refunds are priced separately in Visa's schedule. An ecommerce consumer credit refund is 2.05%, a corporate card refund 2.35%, and a debit refund 0.00%.
By Jeffrey Anderson
- The 18 April 2026 Visa interchange schedule prices refunds as their own transaction type, called a credit voucher, with its own rate table rather than as a reversal of the original sale.
- The flat rates are 2.33% for passenger transport credit, 1.76% for non-passenger transport consumer credit, 2.35% for corporate and business card, 2.05% for mail or phone order and ecommerce consumer credit, and 0.00% for debit.
- Purchasing card refunds are banded by amount, from 2.40% at $10,000 or less down to 1.80% above $500,000.01 for non-GSA, and 2.35% down to 1.80% for GSA.
- Every credit voucher rate is a flat percentage with no per-item component, which is the opposite of nearly every sale program in the schedule.
- On a $100 ecommerce transaction the sale side is $1.99 under Product 1 at 1.89% plus $0.10 while the refund side is $2.05 at 2.05%, so the refund is priced slightly above the sale.
- The credit voucher table states no direction of payment, unlike the Cash Disbursement and Visa Money Transfer entries on the same page, and the term Credit Voucher appears zero times in the Visa Core Rules, so the schedule is the only primary source for it.
Credit vouchers are what the interchange schedule calls refunds, and they carry their own interchange rates. Those rates are not the rates on the original sale. An ecommerce consumer credit refund sits at 2.05% while debit refunds sit at 0.00%, and a corporate card refund is 2.35%.
Everything here is from the Visa USA Interchange Reimbursement Fees schedule effective 18 April 2026, in the Other Transactions section. The comparisons are ours.
The published credit voucher rates
| Credit voucher transaction type | Rate |
|---|---|
| Passenger transport service category, credit | 2.33% |
| Non-passenger transport, consumer credit | 1.76% |
| Non-passenger transport, corporate and business card | 2.35% |
| Mail or phone order and ecommerce merchants, consumer credit | 2.05% |
| Credit voucher, debit | 0.00% |
Purchasing card refunds are banded by amount instead:
| Purchasing credit voucher | Non-GSA | GSA |
|---|---|---|
| $0 to $10,000 | 2.40% | 2.35% |
| $10,000.01 to $25,000 | 2.30% | 2.15% |
| $25,000.01 to $100,000 | 2.20% | 2.00% |
| $100,000.01 to $500,000 | 2.00% | 1.80% |
| $500,000.01 and above | 1.80% | 1.80% |
Every one of these is a flat percentage. There is no per-item component anywhere in the credit voucher table, which is the opposite of nearly every sale program in the schedule.
A refund is a separately priced event
The important structural point is that the schedule prices a refund as its own transaction type rather than as a reversal of the sale.
That shows up most clearly in ecommerce. An ordinary consumer credit sale card not present falls under Product 1, which is 1.89% + $0.10 in the All Other Products column. The matching credit voucher is 2.05%. On a $100 transaction that is $1.99 going out and $2.05 coming back, so the refund side is priced slightly above the sale side.
Our post on commercial card interchange covers the sale-side rates these compare against.
Debit refunds are free and credit refunds are not
The single most useful line in that table is Credit Voucher, Debit at 0.00%.
If your returns run mostly on debit, the refund side of your interchange is nil. If they run on consumer credit, a refund is carrying somewhere between 1.76% and 2.33% depending on your category, and on corporate cards 2.35%.
For a business with a high return rate, that is a reason to look at the card mix on returns specifically rather than on sales. Our refund ratio calculator works out the ratio itself, and the refund timing rules are in our post on refund timeframes and credit receipts.
Passenger transport is the outlier
Note that passenger transport credit refunds are 2.33%, higher than the 1.76% for non-passenger transport consumer credit. Airlines, rail and the rest of that category pay more to give money back than a general retailer does.
That sits alongside the familiar fact that travel merchants also pay more on the sale side, where the card-present Travel 2 program is 1.75% + $0.10 in the All Other Products column. Travel is expensive at both ends.
What the schedule does not say
Two things worth being precise about, because this is where most writing on refund costs goes wrong.
First, the credit voucher table carries no statement of which party pays. The Cash Disbursement table on the facing page says plainly that its fees are paid to merchant financial institutions, and the Visa Money Transfer lines say fees are paid by the institution initiating the transaction to the recipient institution. The credit voucher table says nothing. So we are not going to tell you the direction of the money. Ask your acquirer how a credit voucher appears on your statement.
Second, the term does not appear in the rulebook at all. "Credit Voucher" occurs zero times in the 18 April 2026 Visa Core Rules. It is a schedule term, which means the schedule is the only primary source for it and there is no rule ID to cite alongside the rate. Section 1.5.4.14 (ID# 0003076) governs credit refunds as a merchant obligation, and it says nothing about their pricing.
If you want to know what your own refunds cost, the answer is on your statement rather than in either document, and our guide to reading a processing statement sets out how to find it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do I get my interchange back when I refund a customer?
The schedule does not describe a refund as a reversal. It prices credit vouchers as their own transaction type with their own rates, from 0.00% on debit up to 2.40% on a small non-GSA purchasing card refund. What appears on your statement is a question for your acquirer.
Why is an ecommerce refund 2.05%?
That is the published Mail or Phone Order and eCommerce Merchants, Consumer Credit credit voucher rate in the 18 April 2026 schedule. It is a flat percentage with no per-item component.
Are debit refunds really free?
The schedule lists Credit Voucher, Debit at 0.00%. That is the published rate for the credit voucher itself.
Which refunds are the most expensive?
On the flat rates, corporate and business card refunds at 2.35% and passenger transport credit refunds at 2.33%. On the banded purchasing rates, a non-GSA purchasing refund of $10,000 or less at 2.40%.
Does the rulebook cover refund interchange?
No. "Credit Voucher" does not appear in the Visa Core Rules. The rules govern refund policy and disclosure, in Section 1.5.4.14 and Section 5.4.2.5, and leave pricing to the interchange schedule.
Jeffrey Anderson, Merchant Placement Specialist
Merchant placement specialist at Gray Merchants. Jeffrey works directly with acquiring-bank underwriting teams across the firm’s 70+ banking relationships to place high-risk and hard-to-place businesses, structure multi-MID accounts, and keep flagged merchants processing. His writing draws on the placement files he works every week: what underwriters ask for, why accounts get declined, and what keeps an approved account open.