Buy Rate

The wholesale rate that a third-party processor, acquiring bank, or aggregator charges to an independent sales organization, agent, or smaller merchant service provider to resell merchant services.

There are often many layers of merchant service providers behind the company or bank that appear to be processing your credit card transactions. Many merchant service providers resell merchant services that are provided by a larger financial institution. These providers are responsible for paying the originating provider a percentage of sales from merchants that they sign. This percentage of sales is called a buy rate.

This relationship between providers and resellers is very much like a wholesale/reseller relationship of traditional retail stores.