Amount, Transaction Fee
What it is
Fee charged for the transaction, prefixed C (credit) or D (debit) — e.g. an ATM access fee. x+n 8: the sign plus 8 digits, 9 characters on the wire.
DE 28 on the wire
Bitmap position
DE 28 is bit 28 of the primary bitmap: byte 4, mask 0x10. A primary bitmap with only DE 28 present reads 0000001000000000 in hex.
Length
DE 28 is fixed length with no length prefix: always the C or D sign plus 8 digits, 9 characters in all. Amounts are right-aligned and padded with leading zeros.
Size in the message
At most 9 bytes when the message travels as text (ASCII or EBCDIC), or 5 bytes in binary dialects that pack digits as BCD.
Format x+n
Format x+n means a sign character, C for credit or D for debit, followed by numeric digits.
Specification reference
Defined in ISO 8583:1987 (base). Card networks publish their own dialect tables (Visa BASE I / V.I.P., Mastercard CIS) that refine formats, lengths, and — for private-use elements — the entire layout. Always confirm against the interface specification you implement.