Visa has a special rate category specifically designed for nonprofits. Not all nonprofits will qualify – but if you’re classified with the MCC of 8398, or as a “Charity or Social Service” organization, then you’ll qualify for far-reduced interchange rates.
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.
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.
Mastercard 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.
Standard rates are the worst rates that you can receive on Mastercard transactions. Typically, you’ll receive Standard rates when your sales don’t meet any of the basic qualifications. This can include not submitting AVS data, not settling your sales on time, or failing to submit otherwise required data, based on your merchant type. You want to avoid this rate classification at all costs!
Mastercard has a special rate category specifically designed for nonprofits. Not all nonprofits will qualify – but if you’re classified with the MCC of 8398, or as a “Charity or Social Service” organization, then you’ll qualify for far-reduced interchange rates.
Since not all industries accept credit cards, Mastercard 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, Utilities, and Toll-Roads.
To qualify for the below Mastercard supermarket rates, your business must be classified as a grocery/supermarket, with an MCC of 5411. Below are the basic qualifications, plus you’ll see each type of card that’s eligible for supermarket rates, along with the associated potential downgrade:
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