Visa allows issuance of two distinct card types – Consumer and Business. Depending on your customer demographics, most card-present or “retail” merchants will receive predominantly Consumer cards. Read on to see how different cards qualify for different interchange rates.
CPS stands for “Custom Payment Service”. The CPS classification is typically known as the best rate structure offered by Visa, and CPS requirements are often the “minimum” qualification requirements for more advanced interchange rates. Read all about CPS here. In a nutshell – you have to first qualify for CPS rates before other more advantageous rate structures will apply. The “CPS Retail” category encompasses traditional consumer credit cards, as opposed to rewards/business/purchasing cards. Barring a few exceptions (below), most merchants are able to receive this interchange rate. Read on to see how different types of CPS Retail cards are assessed.
“EIRF” is an acronym for “Electronic Interchange Reimbursement Fee” – and it’s a card-type you’d prefer not to receive, if possible. This is the rate category that many cards will “downgrade” to. Some business types (like restaurants) will auto-downgrade to EIRF for many card types, and an EIRF classification can be totally normal. For standard retailers though, an “EIRF” classification often indicates that data was missing from the transaction when processed, which resulted in a downgrade.
Hotels, Lodging merchants, and auto-rental merchants have special interchange rates from Visa. Because these merchants often take “extended authorizations” where transactions may be altered later on, there are different requirements. Visa allows for a longer authorization timeframe for these merchant types, but you’re required to submit additional information to take advantage of these rates.
Visa has incredibly low interchange rates for merchants who are classified as a Utility. As these payments are considered “low risk” from a processing perspective, the interchange rates reflect that. You’ll see that many of the rates have no percentage fee, and just a flat, per-transaction fee.
Since not all industries accept credit cards, Visa tries to incentivize “newer” industries with lower, more advantageous interchange rates. These are called Emerging Market interchange rates. The only qualifying business types are Schools, Government Offices, Insurance-sales, Fuel Dealers, Child Care Services, and Direct Marketing Subscription services. Charities and Telecommunication merchants are eligible for debit rates only.
Almost all merchants are eligible for the Visa CPS Small Ticket program. Click through for the full qualifications – but typically, if you accept a sale that’s under $15, it will qualify for lower interchange rates from Visa.
The “Card-Not-Present” category is for key-entry Visa sales that meet CPS criteria (including AVS, keying on time, etc). Barring a few exceptions, most merchants are able to receive these interchange rates, and they’ll apply for most key-entry sales.
Supermarkets and grocery stores get heavily discounted interchange rates, since these types of sales are rarely disputed by cardholders. See the full qualification requirements for CPS Supermarket rates, and what other card types supermarkets/groceries can expect to see.
Visa CPS Restaurant rates are only available to restaurants and quick-serve fast food merchants. Restaurant rates are slightly higher than their retail counterparts. Click through to see what card rates restaurants can expect to see, and what potential downgrades will look like.
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