Which merchants will receive the new low debit fee rates? This video provides a detailed look at rate differences and how to examine your merchant agreement schedule A and statement. While all merchants qualify for them, only a fraction will actually have debit discounts passed down from their processor. Will you be one of them? Pull out your merchant statement, then watch the video so you can compare data.

On October 1, 2011, new debit interchange rates go into effect as a result of the Durbin Amendment, part of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform Act.

The Federal Reserve Board on Wednesday issued a final rule establishing standards for debit card interchange fees and prohibiting network exclusivity arrangements and routing restrictions. This rule, Regulation II (Debit Card Interchange Fees and Routing), is required by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.

Debit card interchange fees are established by payment card networks and ultimately paid by merchants to debit card issuers for each electronic debit transaction. As required by the statute, the final rule establishes standards for assessing whether debit card interchange fees received by debit card issuers are reasonable and proportional to the costs incurred by issuers for electronic debit transactions. Under the final rule, the maximum permissible interchange fee that an issuer may receive for an electronic debit transaction will be the sum of 21 cents per transaction and 5 basis points multiplied by the value of the transaction. This provision regarding debit card interchange fees is effective on October 1, 2011.

The Board also approved on Wednesday an interim final rule that allows for an upward adjustment of no more than 1 cent to an issuer’s debit card interchange fee if the issuer develops and implements policies and procedures reasonably designed to achieve the fraud-prevention standards set out in the interim final rule. If an issuer meets these standards and wishes to receive the adjustment, it must certify its eligibility to receive the adjustment to the payment card networks in which it participates. Comments on the interim final rule are due by September 30, 2011. The fraud-prevention adjustment is effective on October 1, 2011, concurrent with the debit card interchange fee limits. The Board will re-evaluate this adjustment in light of feedback received during this comment period.

When combined with the maximum permissible interchange fee under the interchange fee standards, a covered issuer eligible for the fraud-prevention adjustment could receive an interchange fee of up to approximately 24 cents for the average debit card transaction, which is valued at $38.

In accordance with the statute, issuers that, together with their affiliates, have assets of less than $10 billion are exempt from the debit card interchange fee standards. To assist payment card networks in determining which of the issuers are subject to the debit card interchange fee standards, the Board plans to publish by mid-July and annually thereafter lists of institutions that are above and below the small issuer exemption asset threshold. Also, the Board plans to annually survey the networks and publish a list of the average interchange transaction fees each network provides to its covered and exempt issuers. This information should enable issuers, including small issuers, to more readily compare the interchange revenue they would receive from each network.

The final rule prohibits all issuers and networks from restricting the number of networks over which electronic debit transactions may be processed to less than two unaffiliated networks. The effective date for the network exclusivity prohibition is April 1, 2012, with respect to issuers, and October 1, 2011, with respect to payment card networks. Issuers of certain health-related and other benefit cards and general-use prepaid cards have a delayed effective date of April 1, 2013, or later in certain circumstances.

Issuers and networks are also prohibited from inhibiting a merchant’s ability to direct the routing of the electronic debit transaction over any network that the issuer has enabled to process them. The merchant routing provisions are effective on October 1, 2011.

The Board’s notices for the final rule and the interim final rule that will be published in the Federal Register are attached.

May brings the usual April interchange update. There are two noticeable bumps for MasterCard. An overall assessment increase to .012% for all transactions over $1000, and up to .04% more for WorldCard. Full article and link to 2011 Interchange Rates and Criteria.

BUSINESS CREDIT CARDS: The typical interchange rate to merchants for corporate cards is 2.2% or 2.4%.  The non-qualified rate is a whopping 3.17% on MasterCard, which can be avoided with proper interchange management. Depending on your business type, you may qualify for large ticket (minimum $1000) rates which can save you up to 1%. To manage these business card fees, check your merchant statement PENDING INTERCHANGE CHARGES to see what rates you’re hitting. If your eyes glaze over at the complexity of interchange fees, merchant discounts etc, read the 3D Merchant Services blog or email a request to be included in our next interchange insights webinar. TIP: With our payment platform you can automatically offer discounts to your customers if they use lower cost debit cards.

MOBILE PAYMENTS: We’ve officially launched our app for iphone, itouch and ipad. This enables you obtain swipe rates from the field, including signature capture or you can key enter. Receipts are emailed to customers. For service companies, you can swipe the card the first time, then re-bill via a secure token for subsequent charges. In both cases you qualify for the lowest rate, plus mitigate risk with the initial swipe. Droid is available for key entry only, with retail swipe coming by June 30.

Payment Card Industry (PCI) COMPLIANCE AND DATA SECURITY: The number of 2010 data breaches exploded in companies with 11 to 100 employees. A key commonality is simply the opportunity was there. Read the full 2011 Data Breach report which includes insider theft so you can identify your own weaknesses and take corrective action. Your company is not PCI Compliant and protected under Safe Harbor unless you can prove you’ve been compliant continually, not just when you completed an annual report. Trust me, all parties will look for ways for you to assume the full burden of costs associated with any data breach.  Every operation I visit or speak to has weaknesses so please put this on your priority list!. Need help? Call and lets discuss.

What’s in your merchant statements?  Multiple locations are now achieving over 90% pin debit penetration using our universal processing platform, CenPOS. Way to go!

Highlights of the April 2011 traditional bi-annual interchange rate updates are presented in this article, specifically for our client types including retail, wholesale, B2B, hospitality, healthcare and non-profits, so you don’t have to sift through grocery store and other non-relevant data.

MasterCard changes effective April 15, 2011.

• Travel Industries Premier Services Program (TIPS). The registration requirement has been eliminated.  The rates are:

credit 1.58% + $.10
enhanced 1.80% + $.10
World 2.30% + $.10
debit 1.15% + $.15

• Service Industries Incentive Program (SIIP).  All merchants processed under MCC 4814 (Telecommunications Services), 4899 (Cable, Satellite and Other Pay Television and Radio Services) may qualify for the recurring payment Service Industries rates.

core 1.45% + $.10
rewards 1.45% + $.10
Premium 1.45% + $.10

Premium Plus 2.30% + $.10
debit .90% + $.20

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• World Merit III card increases from 1.73% + $0.10 to 1.77% + $0.10.

• World Full UCAF (the rate for a world card e-commerce credit transaction conducted with merchant security and cardholder verification) will increase from 1.83% + $0.10 to 1.87% + $0.10.
• World Merchant UCAF (the rate for a world card e-commerce credit transaction conducted with merchant security only) increased from 1.73% + $0.10 to 1.77% + $0.10.
• MasterCard will increase the assessment fee (a flat transaction fee added to the cost of processing each credit card sale) from 0.11 percent to 0.12 percent on consumer and commercial credit volume for transactions of $1,000 or more.

Full MasterCard Interchange Rates and criteria (pdf).
Also in April, Visa Inc. reportedly added an Interregional Super Premium Card with a rate of 1.97% + $0.00 and four new Interregional Full Chip Cards with an interchange rate of 1.10% + $0.00. All of the new cards also have the 0.40% and 0.45% international service and acquirer fees associated with them.
World cards are generally 20-30% of merchant cards received, so there will definitely be some creep in credit card processing fees.

In addition, MasterCard will increase the assessment fee (a flat transaction fee added to the cost of processing each credit card sale) from 0.11 percent to 0.12 percent on consumer and commercial credit volume for transactions of $1,000 or more. For a complete list of interchange fees go to  interchange rates. Also in April, Visa Inc. reportedly added an Interregional Super Premium Card with a rate of 1.97% + $0.00 and four new Interregional Full Chip Cards with an interchange rate of 1.10% + $0.00. All of the new cards also have the 0.40% and 0.45% international service and acquirer fees associated with them.

Insights on the debit card portion of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act are presented in this blog article. As complicated as the credit card processing industry is, it’s not surprising that those outside the industry, including the media, miss some important points. The debit card proposal by the Federal Reserve would establish debit card interchange fee standards and prohibit network exclusivity arrangements and routing restrictions. The media response is growing as the end of the public comments period nears, and today I read Debit card fees headed lower for merchants, published by the Sun Sentinel, a South Florida newspaper.

PART ONE: WHAT MERCHANTS REALLY PAY

First, let’s examine the often repeated cost merchants pay. The numbers reference 2009 Federal Reserve data. The “average debit cost is $.44 per transaction based on 1.14% of the purchase price. $.56 on swipe debit and $.23 on pin debit”.  Other than Wal-mart, you can bet most merchants pay more than this. Signature debit interchange is currently .95% for Visa and 1.05% for MasterCard, plus $.15 each. The example below is for a SWIPE RETAIL transaction.

$38.59 Average transaction using standard sale referenced

$.37 @ .95% interchange, non-negotiable.

$.15 per transaction interchange, non-negotiable.

$.04 Dues and assessments, non-negotiable.

$.08 merchant discount at 20 basis points, negotiable.

$.15 authorization, settlement, capture, varies by vendor, partially negotiable.

$.79 total cost to merchant= 2%

My point is that interchange is only part of the merchant cost. Pin debit has changed in the last 24 months. Merchant used to mostly pay a low fixed cost per transaction, but now that has shifted to more closely resemble the interchange table.

Here’s the same example using Interlink, one of the most popular networks.

$.31 @ .80% interchange, non-negotiable.

$.17 per transaction interchange, non-negotiable.

$.00 Dues and assessments, non-negotiable.

$.08 merchant discount at 20 basis points, negotiable.

$.15 authorization, settlement, capture, varies by vendor, partially negotiable.

$.71 total cost to merchant= 1.8%

A $.23 average pin debit cost is a thing of the past. It used to be a flat fee for pin-debit, but now virtually every network has moved to a percent of the sale, plus a pretty high transaction fee and no cap.  See    Pin-debit network fees 2010 chart for more details.

Media reports of merchants adding 1-2% to their products and services to cover costs is probably not enough on the low end. The ‘targeted average interchange is 1.79%’ according to a Visa report two years ago. Only the most efficient merchants are achieving that. Small businesses and many other retailers average over 2%. Internet companies pay higher fees. 2% tacked on to goods and services is more realistic.

PART 2 WHAT IT WILL COST UNDER THE NEW PLAN

Here’s what the proposal states. “Two alternative interchange fee standards would apply to all covered issuers: one based on each issuer’s costs, with a safe harbor (initially set at 7 cents per transaction) and a cap (initially set at 12 cents per transaction); and the other a stand-alone cap (initially set at 12 cents per transaction).”

It LIMITS what card issuers -the banks- can collect! It does not limit what the associations i.e. MasterCard, Discover, and Visa who set interchange rates, can charge. Merchants who think they’ll be paying $.12 a transaction in the future are being misled. Costs will almost certainly go down, but who knows what this will really shape into.

HOW CAN MERCHANTS LEVERAGE DEBIT INTERCHANGE FEE CHANGES

One idea being bandied about is discounts. The same Federal legislation signed into law in July 2010, enables merchants to offer discounts to buyers. For example, a merchant can offer a discount if the consumer chooses debit over credit.

What merchant will want cashiers making decisions about whether the card qualifies and how much of a discount the consumer can receive? The mistakes alone could offset any gains. Lucky for me, we have a technology solution that solves this problem for merchants. Here are some key elements:

• Identifies type of card.
• Automatically calculates discount and puts it on customer receipt.
• Merchant can view trends to determine when to offer the discount. For example, why offer a discount in the morning, if most customers already use their debit card during that time of day?
• Merchant can remotely turn on and off messaging at the consumer terminal with the discount offer.
• Cashiers are completely removed from the process of identifying any type of card. This has proven to increase pin-debit penetration from under 15% to over 75%.

THE REWARDS CARD DEBATE

Are consumers so attached to their rewards they won’t give them up? Everyone understands there is a cost associated with rewards, right? Banks will have to adjust their fees or their rewards plans, but it’s only debit cards, because credit cards are not affected by the proposal. Banks have been expanding rewards card plans on debit cards to collect more fees.  When the consumer enters their pin number, the bank won’t get that fee any more. The merchant also reduces risk because chargeback’s are eliminated. In my opinion, consumers will choose free use of their debit cards over rewards, and simply switch banks if they have to pay a fee.

What will merchants really pay in debit card fees under Fed proposal? I don’t know, but I’m certain of one thing. It won’t be $.12 a transaction.

Visa and MasterCard merchant card acceptance policies state that merchants cannot set a minimum for accepting credit cards on a transaction. If you accept the card, you must accept for all transactions. This has not stopped businesses, especially restaurants and quick stop stores from posting signs with $10 minimum charge. The repercussion for merchants can be fines and removal of card acceptance privileges. Additionally there are state laws that address this issue and conflict with the card association regulations.

Why do merchants want to set a minimum fee? The problem is the high cost of credit and debit card processing relative to their profit margins. For example, a typical sale costs the merchant a percentage rate and a per item fee. If 2% plus $.20 per item, that’s the equivalent of 4% fee for accepting a card for payment.

The 2010 Durbin amendment specifically addresses this issue in this section:

• Setting of maximum/minimum transaction thresholds for use of a credit card

It’s important to note that the Durbin Amendment is still a work in progress that will give the Federal Reserve new powers. Not everyone thinks this is a great idea, as we published in the article

Financial Industry responds Durbin amendment on interchange

Merchant services for political campaigns tend to cost more than for retail merchants. Why? The main reasons are their lack of knowledge about the subject and then all the other reasons. Other reasons include how payment is collected, the types of cards presented, and the credit card processing price plans they are on. Below I’ll address each issue in brief.

First their lack of knowledge makes it easier for other companies to charge them more money. Think used car salesmen 25 years ago. Small campaign races will generally pay more than big races because there is little to process. This is simply an ROI issue just like with small businesses. But what about the bigger campaigns?

How do politicians collect money for campaign contributions? The most popular are checks in the mail, donor cards collected at speaking events (check or credit card which is key entered later), and online donations. The donor card exposes the politician to substantial risk. Where are the cards stored while traveling from one event to the next? Who opens the mail? Who keypunches the data? What kind of training have they had in protecting card data? Do you perform background checks on volunteers who see donor cards?

• Reduce risk by keypunching data into a virtual terminal on site.
• Reduce risk and cost by attaching a card reader to a computer. You’ll save about 0.5% by swiping vs key entering.
• Always securely shred card data upon completion of transaction. With a well-developed donor form, you can detach or cut off the credit card data while still keeping critical information on the form such as payment amount. Record the authorization number and date processed on the form for your records.

Costs are affected by the type of card presented for payment. You can’t control this. But you also need to know the merchant services game because this is a big gotcha. In my experience, the card type can relate to the type of race; the bigger dollar donors use rewards or corporate cards. Campaigns targeting smaller donations attract a high amount of debit cards, up to 50%. Here’s the big catch on merchant agreements- QUALIFIED RATE. Chances are 80% of cards presented will never hit the qualified rate. So what’s your non-qualified rate? What’s your best rate for corporate cards for a MOTO merchant account? (Interchange is 2.2% plus $.10 per transaction. )

Common Visa interchange rates for reference: RETAIL= swiped card. MOTO = mail order or phone order. Ecommerce rates are the same, but account set up and rules are different. Below is a very small list of the 500 or so possible rates. We see every day on merchant accounts.

• debit/check card, swipe .95% plus $.20 per transaction
• debit/check card, MOTO 1.53% plus $.10 per transaction
• credit card, swipe 1.79% plus $.10 per transaction
• rewards card, MOTO 1.95% plus $.10 per transaction
• Commercial card MOTO 2.2% plus $.10 per transaction
  Downgrade costs can be nearly 1%, and remember, these are interchange costs. Your fees will be higher.

Credit card processing price plans vary widely for this industry, but in general, are much higher than others. That’s not because the raw costs are higher, its because the payment processors take bigger profits. Remember what I said about the used car salesman. Credit card processing is not the core skill of the average politician and it may not be for the finance manager either. One of the most valuable assets of a politician is their time. Therefore they tend to copy what others in their party are doing, or simply look for the easiest solution that solves many of their time issues.

Ecommerce solutions for politicians are plentiful as they are for non-profits. I have no problem with payment processing costs being higher than average if you get a robust software package at no cost. Companies have to recoup their investment somewhere. But what if you pay for the software and the payment processing?

Let’s look a little deeper into an example such as Click & Pledge. It has lots of cool features to manage donors and build an online community. They also have an integrated payment processing solution option. I had to read several sections a few times, and based on what I read,  I’m still not sure. Can you use their other features but not the payment processing/ They have API section which looks like a yes, but the non-existent comments in the forum make me wonder.

Their rates are among the highest I’ve seen at 4.5% and $.35 per transaction. But wait- that’s not for all cards. “Visa & MasterCard may add additional fees for affinity and cards which earn points. These cards are referred to as non-qualified cards and typically have 1% surcharge associated with them. The fees are not being charged by Click & Pledge and we have no control over which cards will be charged as a non-qualified card.”  So merchants can expect to pay up to 5.5%. Basically they’ve locked in at least 2% profit (also known as 200 basis points) by my estimation, and that’s very high in todays marketplace.

Two percent is about double the norm for a small business from what I’ve seen, although that market is not my specialty. Maybe solutions like this are still a good fit for your campaign. But before  you buy, ask if you’re allowed to use your own merchant account. In most cases you’ll do better far on price and there are other benefits as well. For example, if I were managing your account, I’d make sure you had the right type of merchant accounts for different situations to meet Visa and MasterCard regulations. You’ll get advice and handouts for volunteers on proper data security. We can assist with your check processing, including remote deposit capture. We can assist with payment type and provide risk management advice to help protect you against embarassing data security breaches.

Keep more money from your online donations. Get a merchant account separate from your software or web host.

Interchange and Merchant Discount fees can be illustrated by a typical 4-party transaction involving the purchase of an item using a typical VISA/MasterCard type general-purpose credit card issued by a bank. When a Cardholder purchases a $100 item from a Merchant using a typical VISA/MasterCard type credit card, the Merchant passes on the $100 charge to its Merchant/Acquiring Bank in exchange for $98.00, pursuant to the Merchant’s contract with the Merchant/Acquiring Bank. The Merchant/Acquiring Bank submits the $100 charge into the VISA/MasterCard system and receives $98.50 from the customer’s credit card Issuing Bank (less a small processing VISA/MasterCard fee) in accordance with the VISA/MasterCard rules. The Issuing Bank eventually receives $100 from the Cardholder when the credit card charge is paid. Under this scenario, the Merchant/Acquiring Bank keeps a net Merchant Discount fee of $.50 ($98.50 – $98.00), while the Issuing Bank receives an Interchange” fee of $1.50 ($100 – $98.50). These fees combined are sometimes referred to as a Merchant Discount fee. In some instances, the structure of the transaction changes slightly, but the ultimate economic effect is the same. In addition, the same entity may act as both the Issuing Bank and the Merchant/Acquiring Bank in the same transaction.

The above is the IRS description of the merchant fees process. I think it may be easier for some merchants to understand this explanation so thought I’d pass it on. In this scenario, 75% of the merchant fees paid end up with the card issuing bank. It’s higher than that for the size businesses I generally deal with, more like 95-98%, but you get the point. Merchants need to manage payment processing costs, by controlling the big chunk of money that ends up with the card issuing bank.

What is interchange management?

Link to IRS article at top. Information Document Request for Interchange and Merchant Discount Fees – Banks.