What changes when a transaction crosses borders
Two things change. First, the gateway adds a cross-border surcharge — typically 1 to 1.5 percent — when the buyer's card is issued outside your home market. Second, if the transaction is in a different currency from your settlement currency, the gateway adds a currency conversion margin on top of the FX rate.
Combined, these can take a 2.9% rate to 5–6% on cross-border transactions. For a business with 30% international revenue, that pushes the blended rate by 1 percent or more.
Where the cost actually shows up
Most gateways do not break out the cross-border or FX margin clearly on monthly statements — it is bundled into the payout total. Pull a sample of cross-border transactions and compare the gross amount to the settlement amount to see the real cost.
How to reduce it
If international is a meaningful share of your volume, the highest-impact moves are: hold balances in the buyer's currency rather than auto-converting, use a multi-currency payment provider (Wise, Adyen, Stripe with multi-currency settlement), and invoice large B2B customers directly in their currency for bank transfer rather than card.