When your business accepts credit or debit cards, adhering to the PCI DSS (“Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard”) is non-negotiable. Failure to validate compliance with PCI DSS often triggers what are known as PCI non-compliance fees, recurring charges imposed by acquirers or processors until the merchant resolves the compliance gap.
This article explains what PCI non-compliance fees are, how they are calculated, why processors charge them, and most importantly, how merchants can avoid paying them in the first place.
What is a PCI Non-Compliance Fee?
PCI non-compliance fees are penalties levied when a merchant fails to demonstrate compliance with PCI DSS requirements. They differ from standard “compliance fees” (which cover tools/services to help you stay compliant) and are, in essence, the “cost of doing nothing” (or insufficient action) when compliance documentation, scanning, or controls are missing or outdated.
Key characteristics:
- They appear monthly on merchant statements.
- They are triggered by missing SAQs (Self-Assessment Questionnaires), absent quarterly scans, expired attestations, or using non-compliant payment systems.
- The acquirer or processor applies them because card brands fine acquiring banks when their merchants are non-compliant, and the acquirers pass that burden downstream.
- They are totally avoidable once the merchant brings compliance documentation and controls up to date.
Why PCI Fees They Exist
PCI non-compliance fees are basically a risk-management tool by acquirers:
- Risk pricing: A non-compliant merchant is more likely to suffer a breach; we allocate cost to reflect that elevated risk.
- Incentive to act: Recurring fees create urgency for merchants to complete missing compliance steps rather than procrastinate.
- Cost recovery: The acquirer must monitor compliance, manage portals, handle scan results and reporting to the card brands; non-compliance fees help offset that administrative burden.
For a merchant, the message is simple: invest a modest effort to validate compliance rather than accumulate fees and increase breach risk.
The Cost of PCI Non-Compliance Fees in 2025
Payment processors and card networks continue to tighten security standards, and failing to meet PCI DSS requirements can be expensive. In 2025, non-compliance fees are typically charged monthly and can range from $20 to over $100 per month, depending on your processor, business type, and transaction volume. For larger or high-risk merchants, those costs can escalate quickly, sometimes reaching thousands of dollars annually.
Typical monthly non-compliance fee levels for small/mid-sized merchants
- PCI non-compliance fees are typically $20-$100 per month for smaller merchants who simply haven’t submitted their SAQ or scans.
- For merchants processing under the larger volumes and whose processors engage in routine compliance monitoring, non-compliance fees in the low tens of dollars per month are common.
Larger merchant/higher risk exposure
- Non-compliance with PCI DSS can result in monthly fines from card brands or acquirers escalating rapidly. One breakdown shows:
- Months 1-3: ~$5,000-$10,000 per month, depending on volume.
- Months 4-6: ~$25,000-$50,000 per month.
- Month 7 and onward: ~$50,000-$100,000+ per month.
- On the broader breach-cost front: A 2024 global average cost of a data breach was $4.88 million, emphasising the high stakes of non-compliance.
Compliance cost vs non-compliance fee
- For comparison, becoming PCI compliant (for smaller merchants) may cost in the low thousands of dollars annually; for Level 1 merchants, the cost may reach tens of thousands.
- Hence, paying small monthly non-compliance fees is almost always less economical than fulfilling the compliance requirements and stopping the fees.
What Triggers Non-Compliance Fees
It helps to understand the typical root causes. They are standard gaps in the compliance lifecycle.
- Missing annual SAQ submission: Every merchant must submit the applicable Self-Assessment Questionnaire. If the SAQ is missing or incomplete, non-compliance status is triggered.
- Failing quarterly vulnerability scans: If your environment includes internet-facing systems that store or transmit card data, you must run external scans via an Approved Scanning Vendor (ASV). Missed scans = non-compliance.
- Expired attestation of compliance (AOC) or report of compliance (ROC): Larger merchants or those in service-provider roles must submit formal documentation periodically. Expiry or missing submission triggers fees.
- Outdated or non-PCI-validated payment systems: If your payment environment uses systems that no longer meet PCI controls (for example, legacy terminals, no encryption, etc.), you may be flagged.
- Known vulnerabilities not remediated: If scans repeatedly show the same high-severity weakness and you do nothing, the acquiring bank may escalate non-compliance.
- Breach or investigation revealing non-compliance: Often, a data incident prompts the card brands and acquirer to review compliance status and impose penalties.
How to Avoid Paying PCI Non-Compliance Fees
Clear steps to avoid the fees and focus on proactive compliance:
Identify your merchant level and required SAQ type
Determine which SAQ applies (SAQ A, B, C, D, etc) based on how you accept cards (e-commerce, retail terminal, card-on-file etc).
Use the portal your acquirer provides or manage your SAQ submission annually.
On 31 March 2024, the standard PCI DSS v3.2.1 will retire and transition to PCI DSS v4.0.
Schedule and complete quarterly vulnerability scans (if required)
Make the scans recurring in your calendar or with an ASV vendor.
Review results, fix issues, and upload evidence to your acquirer or portal.
Use secure, PCI-validated payment infrastructures
Tokenization, hosted payment pages, point-to-point encryption (P2PE) reduce your scope and risk.
Modern systems typically make compliance simpler, which reduces the chances of a non-compliance flag.
For example, use a reader/terminal certified for PCI PTS or a gateway marked for PCI-Level compliance.
Maintain documentation and audit trail
Save your SAQ completion, scan reports, AOCs, and remediation logs.
If your acquirer flags non-compliance, having documentation can often stop or reverse fees.
Monitor your merchant statement for “PCI non-compliance fee” line items
Don’t ignore them. If you see a charge labelled “PCI non-compliance fee”, contact your processor immediately and ask:
“What condition triggered this fee, and what proof do you need for my account to be flagged compliant?”
Once you’ve filled the gap, ask that the acquirer credits or stops the fee going forward.
Why Compliance Is the Better Value
From a commercial perspective the numbers speak clearly:
- Paying a modest annual cost for compliance tools and processes is far cheaper than accumulating monthly non-compliance fees.
- The hidden costs of non-compliance go well beyond the apparent fee line: increased transaction rates, reputational damage, card-brand or acquirer penalties, and if a breach occurs, major downstream costs.
- Non-compliance fees escalate quickly: starting from thousands per month in many mid-sized cases.
- Thus, proactive compliance is both financially and operationally the smarter path.
How Clearly Payments Advises Merchants
For merchants working with Clearly Payments, we recommend embedding PCI compliance into your payment-operations baseline:
- We help you understand your PCI level, SAQ type and scanning obligations.
- We offer guidance on secure payment infrastructure options (tokenization, hosted pages, EMV terminals).
- We emphasize that avoiding non-compliance fees is simply part of running a cost-efficient payment system.
- We encourage you to treat compliance as an ongoing process—not a once-a-year box to check.
