What is the Fair Swipe Act? The Fair Swipe Act, introduced by DC council member Charles Allen, would change the calculation of credit card processing fees. Currently those fees are calculated on the total bill or purchase. Instead, under the Fair Swipe Act, the fees would be calculated only on the subtotal. That is, on the amount prior to taxes an...

Mastercard uses many different interchange categories to determine the rates and fees your business pays for accepting credit cards. There isn’t just a single “Mastercard business” interchange rate. There are 5 different business card rates, depending on the “program level.” From there, most businesses will see rates further broken into one of two ...

In this article, we’re going to focus on Visa and Mastercard interchange categories and their effect on your processing fees. In order to do that, we first need to have a common understanding of the basics. Interchange Basics Refresher In my article on interchange rates and fees, I mention several times that there are many different interchan...

Business Product 1 applies to card-not-present transactions and Business Product 2 applies to card-present transactions.There are additional “sub-categories,” determined by spend tiers 1-5. Note that Visa uses Roman numerals, so the spend tiers are I, II, III, IV, and V. Spend tiers relate to the cardholder spending requirements and range from $0 i...

The two categories essentially replaced Visa’s prior CPS interchange program, and apply to different consumer credit transactions. The broadest difference is that Restaurant 1 applies to card-not-present transactions and Restaurant 2 applies to card-present transactions. There are additional “sub-categories” with Restaurant 1 and 2, but unlike w...

Product 1 and Product 2 are common interchange categories for a variety of business types. The categories essentially replaced Visa’s prior CPS interchange program, and apply to different consumer credit transactions. The broadest difference is that Product 1 applies to card-not-present transactions and Product 2 applies to card-present transaction...

Non-qualified charges indicate expensive transaction costs for you. There are two main reasons for them: your processor charged you a non-qualified rate, or your transactions “downgraded” to Visa’s non-qualified interchange category. It’s easy to confuse Visa’s non-qualified interchange with the non-qualified rates from your processor. To unders...

As with many things in credit card processing, it’s complicated. Interchange, as set by Visa and Mastercard, is non-negotiable. It isn’t possible to get lower rates or fees than what Visa and Mastercard publish. But that’s not the full story. Two factors - one malicious, one not - play a role in whether you can lower your interchange. Downgrade...

In fact, there are two areas where it can excel: debit routing and fraud prevention. In this article, we’ll look at the first one - how AI can help save your business money through debit card interchange optimization. Debit Routing Background In order to cover the possible benefits of AI for debit routing, it’s important to have a solid understan...

Note that this does not apply to debit and prepaid cards used at a supermarket. Those card types have their own interchange (CPS Supermarket), which we cover in this article: Visa CPS Supermarket. Let’s take a look at the eligibility requirements for the categories and what you can expect to pay if you’re running a supermarket and accepting Visa...