Introduction to Level 2 and Level 3 Processing

 

Promoting the acceptance of Commercial and Purchasing Cards, Visa® and Mastercard® has developed incentivized Interchange pricing for merchants who comply with Level 2 and Level 3 transaction requirements. Both Level 2 and Level 3 processing require additional information to be sent along with the card authorization allowing the customer to easily identify the transaction while reducing the risk and likelihood your sale will be contested. As a merchant, the ability for you to enhance these transactions with additional Level 2 and Level 3 information can optimize Interchange and significantly impact transaction costs by as much as 1.15%!

 

Level 2 Processing

 

Level 2 Data Requirements Include:

  • Merchant Name
  • Transaction Amount
  • Tax Amount (Between 0.1% and 31% of the total amount)
  • Transaction Date
  • Customer Code or PO number
  • Merchant Zip Code
 

Level 3 Processing

 

Level 3 Data Requirements:

If you’re doing business with larger companies or are vendor to municipal or the federal government, ……its critical to be passing Level 3 transaction data. Providing enhanced having Level 3 data acceptance may help reduce your interchange costs even further. Often times, Level 3 Interchange can be up to a full 1% lower than their standard counter parts. But in order to qualify for these rates, significant additional information such as line items, product codes, item description, unit price, unit quantities, and ship-to postal data will need to be added to the Level 2 data to provide optimal reporting to buyers and sellers.

Level 3 Data Requirements Include:

  • Invoice Number
  • Order Number
  • Item Product Code
  • Item Commodity Code
  • Item Description
  • Item Quantity
  • Item Unit of Measure
  • Item Extended Amount
  • Freight Amount
  • Duty Amount