Transaction fee

A fee charged per fuel purchase or card swipe.

Why It Matters

Transaction fee changes the fee load behind a fuel card account. It should be converted into a monthly total or cents-per-gallon cost before comparing programs.

How It Shows Up

• Transaction fee may appear in a pricing page, account agreement, statement line item or provider support article.
• It can be fixed, per-use, conditional or waived only when the account meets a stated rule.
• The cost matters most after it is converted into a monthly total and then into cents per gallon.

Example

If a card charges $1 per fuel purchase and a driver makes 26 purchases in a month, the account has $26 of transaction fees before any monthly or out-of-network charges. At 1,300 gallons, that is 2 cents per gallon of fee load.

Common Mix-Up

A transaction fee is not the same as the diesel discount. A card can advertise a strong discount and still have per-use costs that reduce the net result.

What to Check

• Confirm how transaction fee is charged and whether it is per account, card, transaction or statement period.
• Ask whether the fee changes by network, payment timing, plan tier or account status.
• Model the fee against expected gallons and transaction count.

Questions to Ask

• Does the transaction fee apply at in-network locations, out-of-network locations or both?
• Is the fee charged per authorization, per settled purchase or only on certain product types?
• Will each fee appear as a separate line on the statement?