I just got off the phone with a new client of mine; a winery in St. Helena, CA. They are using a Omni 3750 terminal in their tasting room and had a few corporate card transactions downgraded resulting in some higher discount rates.

I thought I would share with you what I told my client. First of all never skip a prompt on your terminal when entering a transaction, a skipped prompt almost always results in a transaction downgrade and a higher rate for that transaction.

Second, on business or corporate transactions you should be prompted for two bits of information you are not for other transactions:

1. Customer number or code – You may have an internal account number assigned to the customer, and if you do, enter that number. If you don’t have such a number make one up! I generally use 001.

2. Tax amount – always enter a tax amount according to the guidelines below, with out exception, even if you are not charging tax! The amount you enter will not increase the amount of the sale or appear on the customer’s receipt.

Visa: Sales tax amount must be between .01% and 22%.

MC: Actual sales tax amount or you can enter $0.

In some cases you can enter more information than above and further reduce your fees. If you would like more information on this e-mail me asking for more information about “Level III.”

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AVS uses the billing information associated with a credit card to verify the card holder’s address. This is especially important for Card Not Present (CNP) environments. Why? Because if one of your employees fails to enter the billing address and zip code on a CNP Visa transaction your discount rate will increase by at least .76%! Imagine if not entering this information was standard practice for a business; the extra costs could be substantial.

What You Can Do

• Confirm that the check-out form on your website requires your shoppers to input their complete billing address.
• If your business accepts orders by phone or fax or you have reoccurring transactions, ensure your employees request the the billing address and zip code as well as the shipping address.

Related Posts

• What is Straight Pass Through – Video
• The Three Price Points of a Merchant Account
• What is up with the CVV2 Code?
• Let’s Get Rid of Your EIRF!
• Interchange Compliance – Guidelines
• Business and Corporate Card Prompts
• Eight Ways to Save Money – Method #8 – Capture Level II and III Data