Does capturing the CVV code, the security code on the back of the credit card lower rates? No. This is a long standing myth that even seasoned credit card processing agents prepetuate. Just this past week I educated a 25-year industry veteran that he was incorrectly advising his merchants that it impacted costs. The security code is used only for fraud prevention purposes and NEVER impacts interchange rate qualification, the bulk of costs merchants pay for credit card processing.

CVV, CV2, CsC, CVC, CID, CVC2 all refer to the security code imprinted on the card.

American Express has a 4 digit security code on the front of the card. Visa, MasterCard, Discover have a 3 digit code on the back. A security code mismatch error ALWAYS indicates a fraudulent card. If you have a retail operation, read the Visa Operating Rules and Guidelines for tips on handling these situations.

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Tags: cvc, CVV, interchange rates, security code

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2012 at 9:13 am and is filed under merchant account Q&A, rates, security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.