Three grades of number

A published rate comes from a provider's own public pricing and is the only kind you should quote back to them. A reported rate is set by a scheme or a regulator, or is widely documented, and is usually right but not authoritative. An estimate is representative of a rail in a market and is directionally useful and nothing more.

Every figure on this site carries which of the three it is, because presenting them alike would imply a confidence the underlying data does not support.

Why so much of it is estimated

Large acquirers publish rate cards. Most local rails do not. In many markets pricing is negotiated per merchant, quoted in flat brackets rather than percentages, or simply never written down publicly. A dataset claiming published precision everywhere would be fabricating most of it.

What to do with an estimate

Use it to shortlist, never to sign. Estimates are good enough to tell you which two or three rails are worth a conversation, and not good enough to tell you which of those two is cheaper by a tenth of a percent.