Level III Processing on Converge Frequently Asked Questions
What is Level III Payment Processing?
Level III processing is an interchange advantage Visa and Mastercard offer to B2B and B2G businesses if they meet two very important criteria: highly detailed transaction information at time of purchase and that a qualifying card makes the payment.
These criteria give Visa, Mastercard, and the card issuer certain insight into the transaction, reduce fraud, potential chargeback exposure and and as an incentive, these two companies provide a reduced interchange rate to encourage
qualifying companies to take part in the program.
What is considered Level III detail?
At minimum, Level III processing requires each qualifying transaction to capture the following data:
- Invoice and purchase order information
- Product information – product code, product commodity code, product description, quantity, unit cost, product unit of measure
- Delivery information – Postal code of sender and receiver, Freight and duty information
- Discount information – discount amount and line item amounts
Why should I consider Level III Processing for my business?
Level III processing helps your business reduce interchange costs for qualifying transactions. In addition, it offers the
following advantages:
- Do business with companies that require p-card or GSA card for purchasing
- Save on interchange rates. The reduced interchange rates help your business save on credit card acceptance fees.
How does Converge help my business run more efficiently?
- Improve your cash flow. We fund as soon as the next business day
- Securely store customer information using Customer Manager for future purchases
- Store card numbers as tokens – which are useless to hackers – to help protect card data throughout the payment process
- Open your customer base to include up to 5,000 unique users
How do I accept Level III payments on Converge?
Converge’s virtual terminal and product catalog helps you ring up Level III transactions simply and accurately. The
Product Catalog captures each product’s required details so you don’t have to worry about entering it in at each transaction. The Converge payment screen will alert you if
you missed a field required for Level III. Together, these features help you capture all of the detail needed to facilitate a Level III transaction.
What card types qualify for a Level III transaction?
- Purchasing Cards–These cards speed up the purchase order process within larger businesses and allow them to more efficiently procure and track products and supplies.
- GSA (General Services Administration) Purchasing
Cards –These cards are issued exclusively by Visa and function like Purchasing Cards for U.S. Federal government employees.
Can I process regular cards if I have Level III processing enabled?
Yes, Level III processing only applies to qualifying trans actions made with the supported cards. Non-supported cards will still be processed at the qualifying interchange rates based on the type of transaction and card used for making the purchase.
Can I process Level III online?
Yes. Converge can help you process Level III payments in-store, in your back office and online. For online transactions, you will need to make sure that your website captures all of the necessary Level III line item details as part of your checkout process. You’ll need to integrate your website to our Converge API and you’ll be able to start processing Level III transactions so long as the transaction meets Visa and Mastercard’s Level III requirements.