The use of cash as the de facto payment option is shrinking, and nearly 40% of Americans favor going completely cash-free. Then, in the summer of 2017, Visa stepped up a “war on cash” by offering businesses money to go cashless. While it didn't lead to the elimination of cash, it's nonetheless more common to see consumers pull out a card than cash ...

However, those days are long gone. In early 2017, Visa announced a staged digital wallet fee, which came well after Mastercard imposed a similar fee in 2013. These fees can result in higher interchange costs for small businesses. Which wallets does this affect, and will your business pay more to take digital wallets? Let’s dig into the details. ...

Before we dive into the Visa and Analytics Partners strategic partnership, let’s take a look at AI for marketing in general. What does AI do for marketing and business? You’ve probably already come across AI, either as a consumer or with tools you use at your business. Chatbots are one popular example. But when it comes to marketing, the primary ...

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...

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...

First of all, I’m referring to the lawsuit formally named In Re Payment Card Interchange Fee and Merchant Discount Antitrust Litigation. You may also see it called the Payment Card Interchange Fee Settlement, which should be the return address. It’s a good idea to verify that any paperwork you’ve received matches this information. Unfortunately, th...

“Card not present” or CNP refers specifically to any transaction that is not swiped (for magnetic stripe cards), dipped (for EMV chip cards) or tapped (for contactless payment methods like Apple Pay.) If you don’t physically run a card through a machine using one of those methods, the card is considered “card not present.” If you run a hotel, ca...

We’re also including “CPS Passenger Transport” (such as airlines, cruises, and railways) interchange categories in this article. The reason is that all of these industries fall under “travel and entertainment” and many have the same requirements and rates despite the different business types. These categories only apply to “card present” transac...

For the purposes of interchange, “international” cards are credit and debit cards issued by a bank located outside of the United States. Visa also sometimes refers to the cards and interchange as “interregional” instead of international. These categories apply to both international credit and debit cards in a “card not present” (CNP) transaction...