If you regularly accept credit card payments from businesses or governments, it’s worth taking the time to learn about higher leveled transactions and how they can save you money!
Level 1 transactions are the most common type of card transactions. To process a Level I transaction, merchants need only provide the transaction amount and the billing zip code. This is a standard retail transaction.
Level 2 transactions require merchants to provide more data, like sales tax, merchant zip code, tax ID, and merchant category codes. Providing this information certifies the transaction as as a higher level and qualifies the merchant for discounted interchange rates. Qualified Level 2 transactions are typically corporate credit cards issued by American banks.
Level 3 transaction requires the most data and provides merchants with the biggest discounts. For a transaction to qualify, merchants must provide all of the Level 1 and 2 data as well as item descriptions and quantities, expiration dates, freight and duty amounts, destination postal codes, and more. Providing this data in the payment gateway qualifies merchants for special discounts, which can save them a considerable amount of money.
Visa and MasterCard offers reduced interchange rates for transactions that transmitted data defining what is being purchased, how the sale is taking place, who is involved, when it takes place, and more. All of this this extra data (which may include more than 11 fields) must be provided at the time of purchase – and most credit card terminals do not have the capability to enter it.
For qualified transactions with corporate, purchase, government spending, GSA SmartPay, fleet, and MasterCard business cards, TranSafe pre-populates the Level 3 data fields, making it simple for merchants to take advantage of the best possible rates.
Reach out to our team and find out if your B2B or B2G transactions can be automatically qualified and upgraded.
