Do you accept cards from International customers? If the answer is yes, because you are located either in a tourist hotspot or an area with a high concentration of International students, then you may well be looking forward to a very nice reduction in your merchant services charge for International cards of 40%* or more WEF October 19th 2019. This is when the European Commission Agreement with Visa & MasterCard comes into effect.
Or will you?
The answer is definitely yes if you are one of a very few businesses benefiting from the transparent “Interchange plus” pricing model for processing your card transactions. For the vast majority of businesses whom are still on a blended pricing model, e.g. a fixed percentage rate per card type, any reduction in rates will be down to the card processor whom you are contracted with and if/when they propose to share this reduction in cost with you!
What is “Interchange plus”? It is a totally transparent way of pricing your card payment charges – You have full visibility and knowledge of exactly what your card processor is charging you to process the card payments that you accept. It also means that when changes occur, e.g. a significant reduction in the Interchange charge collected by Visa & MasterCard for International card payments, you will see the immediate benefit in the form of lower card processing costs!
As such, if you are a business taking International cards through a card machine in face-to-face sales outlets, and you are on a blended rate pricing model or perhaps you’re unsure, you can contact our experienced team and we will quickly be able to identity this for you and advise on the range of “Interchange plus ” solutions available from across the whole market to find the best one for your business.
The transparency of this pricing model is suitable for all business types – It’s like knowing what the supplier of other goods or services to your business is paying and what margin they are charging you for their involvement. At AcceptCards we continually monitor the EU Interchange rules to ensure our customers, the majority of which are referred by our long standing network of professional partners, are kept informed and have access to the best levels of pricing and means of card acceptance.
*Savings of 40% or more have been calculated using the existing cost of interchange for International cards used within the EEA (European Economic Area – includes all EU countries and also Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway) at up to 1.98% compared to the new pricing for Card Present Consumer Cards at Debit Cards 0.2% and Credit Cards 0.3% from 19th October 2019. Card Not Present Consumer Cards will reduce to 1.15% for Debit Cards and 1.5% for Credit Cards.
Further details on the announcement are addressed by the European Commission here: http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-19-2311_en.htm
For a free consultation and review please contact us at:
Tel: 01422 372818
