Visa, MasterCard, Discover Announce Policy Changes for April 2016

The three largest card issuers are changing their fees.

Credit card processors are currently alerting their merchants to upcoming policy shifts that will take effect at Visa, MasterCard, and Discover after April 15, 2016. These new rules are minor tweaks to the companies’ current protocols and fees, but merchants should take note in order to avoid confusion and remain in compliance. Visa, MasterCard, and Discover typically update their interchange fee schedules and card policies in October and April, and this latest round of alterations is consistent with the scale of past revisions.

Visa

• Merchants that offer Visa Checkout on their websites must now send their processors an indicator to identify which transactions were processed via Visa Checkout. Each merchant’s credit card processor can provide guidance on how to meet this requirement.
• Visa will now allow corporate and purchasing cards to be processed via its Visa Token service. This change is only likely to affect merchants who process a large number of corporate/level II/level III transactions.

MasterCard

• MasterCard is decreasing its Assessment Fee (charged on every transaction) for transactions that amount to $1,000 or more. The previous Assessment Fee was 0.14%, and the revised fee is 0.13%. For transactions that amount to less than $1,000, the Assessment Fee will remain 0.12%.
• MasterCard currently charges an Acquirer Program Support Fee ($0.0085) and a domestic Cross Border Fee (0.6%) on transactions paid for with credit cards issued outside the U.S. and settled in U.S. dollars. After April 15, these charges will not apply to chargebacks or refunds, but they will continue to apply to normal transactions.
• MasterCard is expanding its reduced-rate Global Wholesale Travel Transaction Program to the following merchant types: bus lines, airports, airport terminals, flying fields, travel agencies, tour operators, travel industry-related direct marketing, real estate agents, rental property managers, recreational and sporting camps, campgrounds, trailer parks, timeshares, health and beauty spas, tourist attractions, recreational clubs, and unclassified recreational services. In addition, all business types will now be able to accept the consumer card associated with the Global Wholesale Travel Transaction Program.
• MasterCard will consolidate the following chargeback Reason Codes (RCs) under existing RC 34 (point of interaction error): RC 31 (transaction amount differs), RC 34 (duplicate processing), RC 42 (late presentment), RC 46 (correct transaction currency code not provided). MasterCard will also eliminate RC 02 (requested/required information illegible or missing).

Discover

• Discover is increasing its Assessment Fee (charged on every transaction) from 0.11% to 0.13%.
• Discover is increasing its International Processing Fee from 0.4% to 0.5%.
• Discover is increasing its International Service Fee from 0.55% to 0.8%.
• Discover is increasing its Data Usage Fee from $0.0185 to $0.0195.

These changes will likely coincide with revised Interchange Fee Schedules from all three issuers, so merchants who wish to track interchange fees for all card types will want to check for the updated matrices after April 15. Merchants who are concerned about any of these changes are advised to contact their merchant account providers for additional clarification.

Do you know of any changes coming in April that we didn’t mention? Let us know in the comment section below: