This means having a pin pad for your clients to enter their PIN number when they use their debit card. These transactions normally have a flat rate per transaction.  Let’s compare the fees paid between a normal credit card transaction and a PIN-based one:

Transaction Amount: $150
Credit card rate: 1.85% + $.10
Credit Card Fee: $2.88
PIN-Based Rate: $.50
PIN-Based Fee: $.50

In the example above the merchant would have saved $2.38 by having their customer use their pin pad. That kind of savings could add up to a substantial amount quickly and the larger your average ticket is the greater your savings will be.

Warning: If your average ticket is average ticket is below $25 you may lose money by accepting pin based debit. So make sure you have an expert crunch the numbers to ensure that does not happen to you.

What You Can Do

• Consider beginning to process PIN-based debit for your transactions where the credit card is physically present if you do not already do so.
• For PIN-based debit, make sure your terminal is properly set up and has a PIN pad.
• Figure out the point where you start to save money on PIN-based transactions and let your employees know that number.

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