Contents tagged with Merchant Rates

  • No Interchange reform legislation in 2010

    February 28, 2010
    House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank announced his committee would not take up Interchange legislation this year.   However there are steps that small businesses, family-owned restaurants, local retailers and service providers can take to help themselves without waiting on the government.

    Immediately switch to an Interchange pass-through pricing plan.  For example, effective October 2010, Visa will extend Small Ticket Interchange to most merchants.  This is an effective reduction in the overall Interchange costs for most merchants.  However, few merchants will benefit since there is no difference between a transaction over or under $15 in their current merchant account contract.  In fact this is just one example.  Most merchants are … more

  • Visa's Debit Rates Converge

    February 13, 2010
    Visa has announced additional changes for April 2010.  Visa will adjust the following U.S. Visa Debit Interchange reimbursement fees.  The significance here is that for many merchants the underlying Interchange costs for accepting a Visa signature debit (check card) will be the same as accepting a PIN debit transaction. 

    Visa Signature Debit

    Fee Program Current Fee April 2010 Fee

    CPS Retail Debit 1.03% + $0.15  0.95% + $0.20

    CPS Supermarket Debit 1.03% + $0.15 ($0.35 max) 0.95% + $0.20 ($0.35 max)

    CPS Service Station Debit 0.70% + $0.17 ($0.95 max) 0.75% + $0.17 ($0.95 max)

    CPS Automated Fuel Dispenser Debit 0.70% + $0.17 ($0.95 max) 0.75% + $0.17 ($0.95 max)

    Interlink PIN Debit

    Visa has announced changes in the pricing for Interlink debit transactions.

    Fee … more

  • Visa extends Small Ticket Interchange to more Merchants

    February 12, 2010
    Visa has announced additions to the CPS/Small Ticket Interchange Program, currently available to Local Commuter Transport, Taxicabs and Limousine, Restaurants, Fast Food Restaurants, Parking Lots and Garages, Motion Picture Theaters, Video Rental Stores, Bus Lines, Tolls and Bridge Fees, News Dealers, Laundries, Dry Cleaners, Quick Copy, Car Wash and Service Stations.

    Effective October 2010, Small Ticket Interchange will be extended to most merchant category codes (MCCs).  Current Small Ticket Interchange applies to transactions less than $15.  The current Visa Small Ticket Credit Interchange is 1.65% + $0.04 and the Visa Small Ticket Debit Interchange is 1.55% + $0.04.

    This is an effective reduction in the overall Interchange costs for most merchant categories.  However, … more

  • The Essential Merchant Guide to Card Payment Refunds

    February 02, 2010
    Buyers need not only an understanding of the benefits and value of what you are selling, they also need clearly stated billing, return, shipping and other policies important in their decision making process. This guide will focus on the essentials of a card payment refund policy:

    Setting a Return Policy

    Refund Best Practices

    Handling Refund related Chargebacks

    Beware of Refund Scams

    Lower costs with Credit Voucher Interchange

    Setting a Return Policy

    A good return policy can help close sales. Your return policy or lack thereof can justify higher or lower cost as reflected by higher or lower risk of buying from you in the mind of your customer. Your return policy can even define your brand - think Nordstrom.

    Handling refund requests in a way that makes good business sense and … more

  • The Fifth Anniversary of Reward Card Interchange

    January 22, 2010
    Reward credit cards are used by card companies to compete with one another for the business of affluent consumers. Card issuers attempt to influence the purchase behaviors of cardholders with higher spending limits by rewarding them to spend more at merchant locations. And by most accounts they have been successful.

    This spring marks the 5th anniversary of rewards Interchange. The decision to implement a higher rate for a rewards card verses a non-rewards card was introduced in response to a growing American Express market share. The competitive landscape in 2005 found MasterCard and Visa card issuers increasingly using rewards as a key component of their cardholder acquisition strategies in order to compete with AmEx for affluent consumers.

    So in April 2005, both MasterCard and Visa … more

  • Debit Network Fee Updates

    January 12, 2010
    NYCE and CU24 PIN debit networks have announced modifications to the current rates. 

    Effective February 1, 2010 NYCE will implement the following changes:

    The switch fee will be decreased from $0.05 to $0.0425.

    Retail merchants will be billed at 0.75% + $0.2125 per transaction. The minimum transaction fee will be decreased to $0.3025.

    Quick Service Restaurant merchants will be billed at 0.55% + $0.1075 per transaction with a maximum fee of $0.5425. The minimum transaction fee will be decreased to $0.2275.

    Supermarket merchants will be decreased to $0.3025.

    Petroleum merchants will be billed at 0.85% + $0.1925 per transaction. The minimum transaction fee will be decreased to $0.3025.

    Returns will be decreased to $0.0425 per transaction.

    PINless … more

  • April 2010 Interchange Adjustments

    January 11, 2010
    MasterCard and Visa have announced New April 2010 Interchange adjustments. 

    MasterCard

    Currently, MasterCard's Assessment fee is 0.095%. MasterCard will increase the Assessment fee to 0.110%.

    While new rates have not yet been announced, MasterCard is introducing new Interregional Interchange programs for:

    MasterCard World Card

    MasterCard World Elite

    World MasterCard for Business

    MasterCard Corporate World

    World Elite MasterCard Business

    MasterCard Corporate World Elite

    Effective April 2010, MasterCard is revising the qualification criteria for Commercial Face to Face and Commercial Data Rate II.  Zero will no longer be accepted as a valid tax value to qualify for these Interchange rate categories.  If a commercial transaction has no sales tax, the … more

  • Salvation Army deploys card acceptance

    December 15, 2009
    The Salvation Army is accepting credit and debit cards for contributions this holiday season in more regions nationwide. News articles from around the country have reported on the card terminals at the traditionally all cash "Red Kettles" which collect donations to support programs such as food for the homeless and toys for needy children.

    The Salvation Army is smart to provider donors with the convenience of more payment options including Visa, MasterCard and American Express card transactions. Realizing that many people don't carry cash, the Salvation Army kettles are adjusting to the changing payment choices consumers are making.

    The Salvation Army has deployed card acceptance to:

    Increase overall red kettle donations

    Eliminate "not carrying any cash" as an excuse for not giving … more

  • Retailers likely to see lower Interchange costs this holiday season

    December 02, 2009
    Retailers are likely to see lower Interchange processing expenses this holiday season due to fewer consumers using credit cards and rewards cards.  According to a WSJ article, Fewer Shoppers Using Credit Cards for Gifts, there has been a drop in the number of shoppers paying with credit cards.   Higher interest rates, lower spending limits, canceled accounts, maxed out cards and watered-down rewards programs are all cited as reasons for the decline.

    In general consumer spending has shifted from credit to debit during the recession. In the third quarter of 2009, credit transactions for Visa and MasterCard reached $313 billion, an 11.58% decline over the same quarter in 2008, according to TowerGroup. Debit transaction volume for Visa and MasterCard was $303 billion, a 5.21% … more

  • No clear winner in the GAO Interchange report

    November 21, 2009
    As we posted back in May, 2009, GAO to Investigate Merchant Interchange Fees, The United States Government Accountability Office (GAO) released its report titled: Credit Cards, Rising Interchange Fees Have Increased Costs for Merchants, but Options for Reducing Fees Pose Challenges on November 19, 2009.

    There was no clear winner in the GAO report. Each proposed remedy to lower Interchange examined by the GAO would impact stakeholders differently, for example, merchants verse card issuers or large merchants versus small merchants or large issuers vs. community banks. One of the most important stakeholders to the politicians are the consumers and the GAO suggested that savings from lower Interchange would not be pass along in every industry and only in competitive markets. The GAO study … more