Pass Level 3 data to eliminate non-qualified surcharges and lower acceptance cost

Specific Interchange compliance requirements must be managed and include merchant category restrictions, authorization, clearing, timeliness and registration. For the card types that can qualify for Level 3, address verification, invoice number, tax amount, and line item detail fields like product code, item description, item quantity, unit of measure and extended item amount must be submitted with the standard sales information.

Interchange is always changing, and MasterCard and Visa are continuously making adjustments in both rate and qualification requirements. Currently Visa and MasterCard both require submitting a tax amount greater than zero to qualify for Level 2 / Data Rate 2 Interchange rates but for tax exempt transactions Level 3 / Data Rate 3 Interchange rates are available provided data requirements are met.

Starting April 2012, Visa will now allow Corporate cards to qualify for Level 3 Interchange while at the same time increasing its Level 3 Interchange rate itself.  Both Visa and MasterCard have Large Ticket Intchange rate programs for commercial cards. For 2012, Visa will increase its current Purchasing Card Large Ticket rate by 0.50% and drop its registration requirements.  Visa will implement new P-card Larget Ticket Purchasing Card Product and Interchange Fee program for transactions from $10,000 to over $500,000.  Visa will also introduce a settlement match system edit April 2012 that validates the amount in the clearing record against the amount in the original authorization record to ensure an exact match for accounts defined as B2B. These changes highlight the need to work with a B2B payment specialist who can advise you on setting payment policies to help lower your processing expenses.

Qualifying for incentive Level 3 processing rates while eliminating Non-Qualified surcharge fees may reduce your processing expenses by an average of 15% to 20%! For example, the difference between a tax exempt MasterCard business transaction processed at Level 3 Interchange and hitting the next best Data Rate 1 Interchange is 85 basis points.  This is a significant savings. 

Leading indicators that your processing costs are too high:

• You have the same rates for both MasterCard and Visa
• You have only one Qualified Rate
• You pay Mid & Non-Qualified Rates
• You use a terminal for processing P-card transactions
• You use a “B2Consumer” virtual terminal or payment gateway

Contact us for a Level 3 Interchange quote detailing Visa, MasterCard and Discover commercial card rates, qualification requirements and next best rates.