All merchants will see an increase in the fees paid for bankcard transactions primarily due to an
 increase in Visa’s interchange fee structure. Information about this increase is published on your
 monthly merchant statement. This increase will go into effect April 1, 2006. Most merchants
 will see this change on their May month-end statement. Billed in April 2006.
  Overview When you settle your transactions each day, the NOVA Network processes and sorts each transaction by card type. The transactions are then sent to their respective card associations (Visa or MasterCard) through Interchange. During this process, every transaction is assigned an Interchange category based on industry type and qualification elements e.g. swiped sale or forced sale. What is Interchange? Interchange is the system where transactions are submitted for payment from the Acquirer or Merchant Processor to the Card Issuer. The Card Associations (MasterCard or Visa) establish the rules and manage the Interchange of all transactions. Interchange also represents the fees paid by the merchant acquirer to the Card Issuer — Fees depend upon the Interchange Qualification that is assigned to each transaction by the associations for processing transactions. These fees are paid at the time the transaction is exchanged and vary based on processing method utilized. For example, it is significantly more expensive to process a hand-keyed transaction than a card-swiped transaction. How can I make certain my transactions qualify at the best rate? Interchange and Card Association fees vary in amount based on industry type, the degree to which cards are authorized, and the timeliness of remitting a sale for payment. There are several rates that may apply to your transactions, depending on your method of processing each transaction. When setting rate qualification criteria, the card associations consider the card product used in the transaction, how the transaction data is entered into the terminal, the time of settlement versus time of authorization. The links below describe the criteria for qualifying each transaction. Using one of the attached charts as your guide, you can determine what rate will be charged for those transactions that do not qualify under your base rate. The criteria for your base rate must be met to qualify for your new discount rate; otherwise, you must add the non- or partially qualified rates.
View your industry-specific chart on the Interchange Page.
To get your free acrabot reader click here.