Am I charged more when I accept a business credit card or rewards credit card?

Yes, different types of credit cards have different interchange qualifications. Interchange can get a bit complicated but it is easiest and accurate enough to think of interchange rates and fees as the wholesale rate charged for a credit card transaction. A paragraph from VISA's interchange reimbursement chart states:

"Visa uses interchange reimbursement fees as transfer fees between financial institutions to balance and grow the payment system for the benefit of all participants.  Merchants do not pay interchange reimbursement fees; merchants pay "merchant discount" to their financial institution. This is an important distinction, because merchants buy a variety of processing services from financial institutions; all these services may be included in their merchant discount rate, which is typically a percentage rate per transaction."
Source: http://www.visa.com - Visa U.S.A. Interchange Reimbursement Fees

If you look at the chart that shows the interchange reimbursement fees you will notice that there are quite a few different categories of fees. While there are types of merchant accounts that charge a certain percentage over the exact interchange rate most merchant accounts are set up with a general tiered system of qualified, mid-qualified and non-qualified categories. If you're unfamiliar with merchant account discount rates and qualification you can read more here.

(A current copy of the MasterCard interchange rates can be found here)

Open up the interchange PDF document using the link above and scroll down to page three. On this page you will notice that there are a few categories called CPS/Rewards 1 and CPS/Rewards 2. These categories refer to rewards credit cards and the rate increase associated with them. If your merchant account functions under the typical qualification tiers that most do, rewards credit cards will usually run under the mid or non-qualified tier/rate.

Looking at the same PDF scroll down to page four and you will notice categories like Commercial Level II, Commercial Level III and Commercial Business-to-Business along with their respective interchange fees. These interchange categories refer to business credit cards and the rate increase that is charged when you accept a card that falls into one of these categories. Business cards typically run under the mid or non-qualified rate tier.

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Lowering Your Cost to Accept Reward and Business Credit Cards
Now that you know that you are charged more to accept rewards and business credit cards there is probably something that you can do about it.

Your merchant account provider has some control over where your transactions qualify thereby affecting the rate that you pay. If you typically accept a large number of rewards and/or business credit cards you need to contact your merchant account provider to speak with them about adjusting your account so that these types of cards fall into a lower qualification tier.

By looking at the interchange chart above you can see that there are many different categories of cards and transactions all packed into three categories on your merchant account. By making a few adjustments to your account it is very possible that your provider may be able to save you a lot of money.

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Summary
Yes, business credit cards and rewards credit cards are charged at a higher rate than regular consumer credit cards. However, by working with your merchant account provider you may be able to have these cards charged at a lower interchange category and therefore a lower rate/fee.

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Still not clear about the charges associated with business and rewards credit cards?
Interchange, qualification rates, tiers and the merchant account pricing model are pretty confusing things. In fact, many merchant account sales representatives don't fully understand them. If you've still got questions about this or another topic please submit it via the link above. You'll have to register quickly, but I assure you this is strictly to prevent spam. You information is never shared.