April 2006 Association Enhancements Dear Merchant, This document identifies and describes Pay By Touch Payment Solutions support of Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International enhancements scheduled for implementation on April 7, 2006. A summary of impacts is provided. If you have any questions, please contact our Merchant Services group at 1-866-704-4729. Merchant Services representatives are available to assist you from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. (EST) Monday through Friday. Thank you for your continued support. Your Pay By Touch Payment Solutions Team DISCLAIMER The information contained in this document is intended solely for the use of clients of Pay By Touch Payment Solutions. This information is an interpretation of previously published Visa U.S.A. and MasterCard International documentation and is not intended to replace or supersede such information. Pay By Touch Payment Solutions makes no warranties, either express or implied, as to the accuracy of the content contained herein. April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 1 of 9
Visa Enhancements 1) Chargeback Protection for No Signature Required Expanded chargeback protection will be provided to U.S. domestic transactions submitted with amounts less than $25 that meet certain transaction characteristics. To qualify, a transaction must meet all the following edit criteria: a) The MCC must be one of the following: MCC Description 4111 Local & Suburban Commuter Passenger Transportation, including Ferries 4121 Taxicabs and Limousines 4131 Bus Lines 4784 Toll & Bridge Fees 5499 Miscellaneous Food Stores 5541 Service Stations 5812 Eating Places and Restaurants 5814 Fast Food Restaurants 5912 Drug Stores and Pharmacies 5994 News Dealers and Newsstands 7211 Laundries Family and Commercial 7216 Dry Cleaners 7338 Quick Copy, Reproduction and Blueprinting Services 7523 Parking Lots and Garages 7542 Car Washes 7832 Motion Picture Theaters 7841 Video Tape Rental Stores b) The POS Entry Mode must be one of the following: Value Description 05 Integrated circuit card read CVV or icvv data reliable 07 Proximity payment originating using VSDC chip data rules 90 Complete magnetic-stripe read and transmitted (CVV) 91 Proximity payment originating using magnetic-stripe data rules April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 2 of 9
c) The amount must be less than or equal to $24.99. In addition, eligible transactions must also qualify for one of the following CPS fee programs: CPS/Retail Credit & Debit CPS/Restaurant Credit & Debit CPS/Retail Service Station Credit & Debit 2) CPS/Small Ticket Fee Program and Rate Changes Contact Client Services if applicable Visa is expanding the list of Merchants Category Codes (MCC s) that can now qualify for the CPS/Small Ticket Fee Program. The following merchant categories are now eligible to qualify: MCC Description 4111 Local & Suburban Commuter Passenger Transportation, including Ferries 4121 Taxicabs and Limousines 4131 Bus Lines 4784 Toll & Bridge Fees 5812 Eating Places and Restaurants 5814 Fast Food Restaurants 5994 News Dealers and Newsstands 7211 Laundries Family and Commercial 7216 Dry Cleaners 7338 Quick Copy, Reproduction and Blueprinting Services 7523 Parking Lots and Garages 7542 Car Washes 7832 Motion Picture Theaters 7841 Video Tape Rental Stores Changes have also been made to allow transactions to qualify only if they take place in a face-to-face environment. Transactions occurring at unattended terminals will only qualify for EIRF or Standard, as appropriate. In addition, the pass-thru interchange rate for CPS/Small Ticket Debit has been changed from 1.60% + $0.04 to 1.55% + $0.04 per transaction. April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 3 of 9
3) Elimination of the U.S. Express Payment Service Express Payment Service (EPS) is an interchange category that eliminates cardholder signature and authorization requirements for transactions $25 or less in four merchant categories. To better align with Visa s move towards zero floor limits, Visa has eliminated the EPS program. With the installation of compliance, transactions submitted with a reimbursement attribute of 3 EPS will be rejected by the BASE II Edit Package and returned to the merchant. 4) New Visa Signature Business Product The new Visa Signature Business card was developed to meet the needs of highspending small business customers through reward programs and other enhancements. This new product will capture business spending that occurs today with cash and checks. The Visa Signature Business product is designed to offer a premium business card with the value desired by customers in this market segment. 5) New Visa Signature Interregional Fee Program U.S. Visa Signature card transactions acquired outside the U.S. will no longer receive the same interregional fee descriptors and rates that apply to Visa Classic, Gold, and Platinum card transactions. As part of this change, Visa will implement a new Visa Signature fee program descriptor and rate to support interregional purchase and credit voucher transactions. The new rate for this program is 1.80%. April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 4 of 9
6) International Merchant Fee Program Changes Visa will implement new product-specific International Merchant fee programs to support U.S.-acquired Visa Signature and Infinite card transactions from U.S. territory and non-u.s. Merchants. International transactions are classified as coming from Merchants in the following U.S. Territories: U.S. Territory Puerto Rico American Samoa Marshall Islands U.S. Minor Outlying Islands U.S. Territory U.S. Virgin Islands Guam Palau The new rates are as follows: Fee Program Rate International Merchant Signature Card 1.80% International Merchant Infinite Card 1.80% 7) Changes to Merchant Category Codes Visa will implement changes to support updates to the following Merchant Category Codes (MCCs): MCC Merchant Type Required Name 3559 Candlewood Suites CANDLEWOOD SUITES 3602 Hudson Hotel HUDSON HOTEL 3604 Hilton Garden Inn HILTON GARDEN INN 3607 Fontainebleau Resorts FONTAINEBLEAU RESORTS 3003 Eurofly Airline EUROFLY AIR April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 5 of 9
MasterCard Enhancements 8) New World Card Program MasterCard will launch a new T&E card program aimed at the high-end, affluent consumer segments. This new World card product is targeted at the frequent international traveler and will be offered in addition to the MasterCard World Signia product offered in Europe and the World MasterCard product issued globally. The new card will be introduced for Europe issuance and worldwide acceptance. Existing interregional interchange pricing for World MasterCard will apply, however special interchange pricing will be defined within Europe. 9) Retrieval Request Enhancements As part of an ongoing process to provide more complete and accurate transaction information for MasterCard members, MasterCard will mandate Retrieval Request/1644 messages to include the card Acceptor Business Code (MCC) (DE26) and Point-of-Service Data Code (DE22) effective with GCMS Release 6.1. 10) Elimination of Issuer Currency Conversion Rate (ICCR) For several years, MasterCard has offered an optional service that enables Issuers to designate a proprietary adjustment to be applied to the transaction amount for transactions that have undergone currency conversion. MasterCard maintains ICCR rate information at the Issuer account range level for members who use this feature. Effective with the GCMS Release 06.1, MasterCard will discontinue the Issuer Currency Conversion (ICCR) adjustment process and remove the ICCR Effective Date (PDS 0020) from the First Presentment/1240 message layout. April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 6 of 9
11) Cross-Border Transaction Pricing Effective with GCMS Release 06.1, MasterCard will implement new cross-border transaction pricing. This pricing will be assessed any time a transaction occurs in which the country code of the merchant differs from the country code of the cardholder. In addition, for purposes of identifying a cross-border transaction, Merchants in U.S. Territories will be considered U.S. Merchants. U.S. region acquirers will pay MasterCard an Acquirer Cross-border Assessment of 20 basis points on all Cross-border Transactions on non-u.s.-issued MasterCard, Cirrus, or Maestro credit or debit cards acquired from U.S. merchants and submitted to MasterCard in a transaction currency other than U.S. dollars. However, when the transaction is submitted to MasterCard in U.S. dollars, the Acquirer Cross-border Assessment will be 20 basis points but the acquirer will receive a credit of 10 basis points. The Acquirer Cross-border Assessment will be billed weekly through the MasterCard Consolidated Billing System (MCBS). 12) New Diners Club Edit To ensure the appropriate interchange rates are assessed for Diners Club transactions, effective with GCMS Release 06.1, a new edit will be introduced to limit the use of the Diners Club Electronic Interchange (IRD D1) and Diners Standard Interchange (IRD D2) interchange programs to merchant countries located in the Caribbean or U.S. Territories. The following Regions and Countries are affected: Region Country Country Code Asia/Pacific American Samoa ASM Federated States of Micronesia Marshall Islands Guam Northern Mariana Islands Palau Continued on the following page U.S. Minor Outlying Islands FSM MHL GUM MNP PLW UMI April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 7 of 9
Region Country Country Code Latin America/Caribbean Bahamas Bermuda British Virgin Islands Cayman Islands Dominican Republic Haiti Jamaica Puerto Rico Turks and Caicos Islands U.S. Virgin Islands Antigua* Aruba* Barbados* Curacao and St. Martin* French Guiana* St. Kitts and St. Maarten* BHS BMU VGB CYM DOM HTI JAM PRI TCA VIR ATG ABW BRB GUF KNA * In certain circumstances, Diners Club North America may be authorized to include these countries as part of the designated area. Members should check their acquirer agreements with Diners Club North America for areas that are authorized. 13) Card Acceptor Tax ID Effective with GCMS Release 06.1, Card Acceptor Tax ID (PDS 0596) will be mandatory for specific transaction where the merchant is in the U.S. and the transaction is submitted with a corporate product and a corporate interchange program. The Card Acceptor Tax ID must be provided in the Financial Detail Addendum message, along with any additional mandatory elements for the submitted interchange rate program. April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 8 of 9
14) Diners Club Interchange Compliance Modifications Effective with GCMS Release 06.1, MasterCard will begin applying interchange compliance matching and validation to U.S. acquired Diners Club transactions. 15) Additional MCCs for Public Sector and Emerging Markets Contact Client Services if applicable Effective with the GCMS Release 06.1, merchants within the merchant categories below will now have the ability to qualify for three existing U.S. intraregional consumer interchange programs. All three of the following MCC Codes 4111 Transportation Suburban and Local Commuter Passenger, including Ferries 4784 Bridge and Road Fees, Tolls 9402 Postal Services Government Only Will qualify for all three of the following U.S. Interchange Programs Public Sector (IRD 22) Emerging Markets (IRD 29) World MasterCard Public Sector (IRD 56) 16) QPS for Limousines and Taxicabs Contact Client Services if applicable The Quick Payment Service (QPS) was originally designed to facilitate payment card acceptance in the Small Ticket industry segments, which had traditionally accepted cash only. QPS provides MasterCard member with a tool to offer registered merchants specific rule waivers for certain transactions that are processed in accordance with the guidelines of QPS. Effective with GCMS Release 06.1, MasterCard will include MCC 4121 Limousines and Taxicabs as part of the QPS program. Criteria includes: USD 25 floor limit Waiver of signature requirements for small-ticket cab and limousine fares Waiver of receipt unless requested by the cardholder. April 2006 Association Enhancements Distributed March 1, 2006 Page 9 of 9