CardTraq is a web-based network fee tracking platform that helps issuers, acquirers, and BIN sponsors monitor every Visa and Mastercard charge, identify avoidable fees, and govern costs month over month.

Network Invoices represent a large, often unnoticed savings opportunity for most card issuers and acquirers.

  • Card fees are complex, rising, and often avoidable.
  • Teams often lack tools to spot errors, new fees, and non-compliance charges.
  • Without action, fees grow unchecked and savings opportunities are missed.

Substantial savings can typically be made in a short time frame, with little resource requirement, and with no system integration.

We bring together the tools and expertise to support you at any stage of network fee optimization

Track Fees

Monitor and visualize fee performance to surface changes and their financial impact.

Our platform ingests network invoices and automatically flags new, increased, or misapplied fees, providing a clear view of fee trends over time.

Network fees can represent up to 20% of your revenue.

Identify Savings

Analyze invoices to uncover avoidable or excessive charges.

Our Payment Economics Experts conduct a detailed review of existing fees to pinpoint areas where charges can be reduced or eliminated, using historical benchmarks and billing patterns.

We typically identify between 7% and 15% of total fees which can be avoided or eliminated.

Implement Savings

Remediate fee issues through quick fixes and strategic initiatives.

We provide realization likelihoods for all opportunities, and provide hands-on support to prioritize initiatives and implement savings.

Clients typically convert a large proportion of the savings opportunities identified.

Track Announcements

Monitor network bulletins to stay ahead of upcoming fee and compliance changes.

A cloud-based platform alerts you in real-time to new announcements and streamlines the internal response, reducing risk and improving readiness.

Bulletins have increased by 34% from '22 to '23, totaling almost 2,000 bulletins.

CardTraq for Network Fees

Our advanced network fee tracking platform sits at the core of our fee optimization offering.

A network fee review finds your savings once. Keeping them is the harder part, because Visa and Mastercard introduce and adjust fees constantly, so costs that were optimized this quarter drift back the next.

CardTraq for Network Fee Tracking is how you hold the gains. The platform tracks every charge month over month, flags new and changed fees as they appear, and turns the one-time findings of a review into an ongoing, governed cost line.

We're saving our issuer and acquirer clients millions in network fees, every year, by applying a network fee review to size the opportunity, then moving onto the platform to protect and extend the savings.

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Zero integration · Zero sensitive cardholder data
Client Benefits

Who benefits from using CardTraq for Network Fees?

The platform serves all Visa and Mastercard issuers and acquirers globally, as well as most ISOs, helping them save millions annually by identifying charges which can be reduced, eliminated, or passed through to clients.

Fee Movements Detail

Fee Movements Detail gives you a single view of every charge across all networks, countries, and subsidiaries, down to the individual fee line, so you can see exactly what you are paying and how it is trending.

  • Clarity of fees paid
  • Aggregate view across multiple countries and subsidiaries
  • Granular view to unique fee level
  • Fee trend analysis

New Fee by Month

New Fee by Month isolates fees that appear for the first time, including one-off charges like fines, so you can spot, question, and contest them before they become recurring.

  • Reveal new fees never seen before
  • Reveal exceptional fees such as fines
  • Contest fees quickly
  • Drive fee ownership amongst subsidiaries

Fee Decomposition

Fee Decomposition breaks total network cost into its components and tracks over time, so you can compare across networks, geographies, and subsidiaries.

  • Trend analysis over time (absolute and basis points)
  • Compare one network with another
  • Compare costs across multiple geographies or subsidiaries

Period-on-Period Change in Fees

Period-on-Period Change in Fees shows how each fee category has moved between periods, which gives you the basis to budget accurately, price products, and negotiate with the networks from evidence.

  • Accurately budget for network fees
  • Inform product pricing (e.g. Merchant Discount Rate for acquirers)
  • Leverage detailed knowledge and insights in network negotiations
Case Studies
Prepaid Issuer

Private Equity-owned issuer of Mastercard prepaid cards across US, Australia, UK, and Republic of Ireland.

$4M/year
↓18% recurring cost savings identified
27 anomalous or erroneous billing events 209 cost saving opportunities
International Multi-Product

A NASDAQ-listed global payments company with card issuing businesses across multiple continents.

$1.5M/year
↓12% recurring cost savings identified
8 anomalous or erroneous billing events 24 cost saving opportunities
Unicorn Fintech

A European issuer of commercial cards across multiple geographies.

$1.1M/year
↓22% recurring cost savings identified
19 anomalous or erroneous billing events 21 cost saving opportunities
Large Global Acquirer

A top 10 acquirer operating across the Americas, Europe and Asia Pacific.

>$50M/year
↓11% recurring cost savings identified
20+ anomalous or erroneous billing events 200+ cost saving opportunities

Our clients typically achieve 40–80% realization of savings identified, analysis is completed in 4–6 weeks, and the majority of savings are realized within months.

Watercolor illustration of a person working on a forecast line chart on a computer, with a wall calendar in the background.
Forecasting & Accruals Accounting

Look forward, not just back

Our optional Forecasting & Accruals Accounting add-on calculates accrued network fees, such as quarterly and annual fees, and forecasts future fees from input volumes by jurisdiction. Outputs inform budgeting, pricing decisions, and network deal negotiations.

Network Fees Explained

Get a grip on the growing challenge

Can you clearly explain what you are paying Visa and Mastercard in network (scheme) fees, and what is driving those costs? If not, you are not alone, and the opportunity is usually larger than expected once the drivers become visible.

Our free guide explains how Visa and Mastercard network (scheme) fees work, how they are assessed, who pays them, and why they continue to rise faster than payment volumes.

Get our fee explainer
Card Network Scheme Fees Explained — free guide
Our Team

CardTraq, created in partnership with Pinnacle Payment Economics, is based on over 100 years of card network economic and real-world compliance experience.

Our experts can work alongside your team to identify and implement savings opportunities and ensure you get the maximum value from the CardTraq platforms.

Meet the Team
CardTraq team reviewing payment card economics

Ready to optimize your network fees?

Our team of seasoned experts is here to help you gain control of your payment card costs. Let us show you how CardTraq can optimize your compliance and network fee management to deliver significant savings.

Book a demo or contact us for a personalized consultation.