Level 3 Processing

Visa and Mastercard have created a specialized type of credit card used primarily by government agencies and businesses. Increasingly, corporations and government agencies are relying on this form of payment to compensate their service providers and suppliers. Businesses benefit by receiving their funds quickly and by winning competitive bids and government contracts where purchasing cards are the required form of payment. The downside, however, is the increased costs associated with receiving these payments. These costs will usually be much higher than accepting a standard consumer credit card.

The solution is that some businesses may qualify for ways to process these transactions that allow them to pay lower fees if they can supply additional information, called "level 2 or level 3 data". For example, if government transactions are over $5,000, businesses can significantly reduce their transaction costs by including "level 2 or level 3 data" about the purchase along with each transaction. Examples of level 2 or level 3 data is a purchase order number associated with the transaction that the credit card will be paying. This data is passed on to the purchaser so that it may be many times easier to reconcile the transaction. If all the required data is not collected and passed on during the transaction, the merchant can have surcharges added to the basic fees or be forced into a non qualified transaction category.

To have your transactions qualify for level 3 pricing, you must use a certified product that collects and submits the data properly to Visa/MC.

    Required Data to Qualify for Level 3:

• Standard Info - credit card number & exp, billing address, zip code & invoice number.
• Customer Code - no longer required, but encouraged if they have it.
• Sales Tax - an amount must be submitted separately from the total transaction amount.
• Freight Amount - If unavailable, enter $0.00
• Duty Amount - If unavailable, enter $0.00
• Line Item Details:
  1. Product / Service ID (item ID)
  2. Product / Service Description
  3. Quantity
  4. Item Amount (like $100)
  5. Unit of Measure