Revolution Payments Tackles Biz Card Fees With Level 3 Data

Revolution Payments announced its Level 3 Processing solution that can help businesses reduce the interchange cost of accepting commercial or government credit cards by 1 percent to 1.5 percent. Founded 24 years ago, Revolution is focused on delivering reliable and secure payment solutions for clients, including Ramada, Holiday Inn Express, Volvo, Kenworth and Mack.

Each time a merchant accepts a credit card transaction, Visa and Mastercard use “interchange fees” to determine how much is paid to the issuing bank. As the company explains on its website, for business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-government (B2G) purchases, these interchange fees fall into one of three processing categories: Level 1, Level 2 or Level 3. Level 1 has the highest rates, and Level 3 has the lowest rates.

Revolution’s automated processing solution eases the friction for the data entry normally required to qualify for Level 3 interchange rates. The solution automatically detects whether the transaction is Level 3 eligible, while also lowering the “interchange” costs by up to 40 percent before a processor applies its rate to the transaction.

“Many businesses have been conditioned to focus only on rate when choosing a credit card processor. Rate is important — however, up to 90 percent of the credit card processing fees [a] business pays to accept cards goes right back to the card-issuing bank. This is referred to as interchange; interchange is the same, regardless of the processor. Processors [gain] no revenue whatsoever from interchange,” the company explained in a press release.

Visa and Mastercard, for example, apply higher interchange rates for transactions accepted without Level 3 payment details. These rates can be anywhere from 80 basis points to 1.5 percent.

With Revolution’s new solution, merchants can now recoup a large portion of this interchange revenue without having to enter all the additional requirements. Instead, the solution will update transactions across all payment channels, and QuickBooks, Sage and Great Plains transactions are also supported.