This is the first article of a series that we are putting together. Each of these articles will address a new card processor and how to read their processing statements in detail. This will help you discover all the fees and rates that apply to your account. If you have any processor suggestions or comments, please feel free to contact us at blog@helcimblog.com
Download the Sample Statement (PDF): ChasePaymentech-StatementSample.pdf
Sample Statement – Please Note: The statement used for this article is a sample statement generated to illustrate its structure. It does not represent any specific merchant location or affirm the processor’s actual rates.
[A] [B] Card Type Summary
The card type summary portion shows the total number of transactions [A] that you have performed this month as well as the dollar volume [B] processed. In this case, there were:
278 Visa transactions totaling $23,498.62
118 MasterCard transactions totaling $11,507.27
642 Interac debit transactions totaling $44,036.41
[C] Visa Fees & Assessments
For Visa, we see a discount rate of 1.680% for Visa transactions with an assessment fee of 0.060% which applies to all transactions. This would make your true Visa “qualified” rate 1.74%. The qualified rate applies to all of your transactions.
[D] Visa per Transaction Fee
The per transaction fee (or per item fee) is a fixed fee charged for everything transaction. In this case, it is 12 cents.
[E] Visa Non-Qualified
This is by far the most important part of your statement, and is also the most cryptic part of it (see a pattern?) The non-qualified credit card transactions are shown in lumped volumes, with lumped charges for each category. With some quick math, we can determine the percentage rate. You need to take the cost of the non-qualified, divide it by the volume and times it by 100 (cost / volume * 100):
0.700% ELE BUS NAT
0.900% ELE INF NAT
1.100% NAT SETL INF
0.900% NATL SETTLED
0.500% FGN COMMERCI
0.700% INT SIGNATURE
Non-qualified rates are charged on top of the qualified rate. In this example, a “ELE INF” transaction (which means Infinite rewards premium card, such as TD’s Visa Infinite Card) has a total cost of 2.64% (1.74% qualified + 0.90% non-qualified).
[F] For MasterCard
See the Visa example above for an explanation. In this case, the true MasterCard qualified rate is 1.854% (1.790% + 0.064%) on all transactions.
[G] MasterCard per Transaction Fee
The per transaction fee for each MasterCard accepted 12 cents.
[H] MasterCard Non-Qualified
See the Visa example above for information on calculating your MasterCard non-qualified rates.
0.800% CAN HS ELEC
1.100% CAN HS STD
0.700% MC CAN COM
0.700% MC CAN RATE
[I] Interac Debit per Transaction Fee
The per transaction fee for Interac Debit transactions is 12 cents.
[J] Other Charges
This section will usually list any other service and equipment fees that are not directly related to the transactions. In this case, it shows a monthly admin fee of $15 (sometimes called a statement or service fee) as well as an equipment rental of $39 per month.
[K] Total Cost
This is the grand total of all of your processing charges, including discount rates, transaction fees, assessments, non-qualified, service fees and equipment rental.
Is your credit card processor PCI-Level 1 certified?
Although you would think that the answer would always be ‘yes’, many merchants are surprised to hear that the company they have been dealing with is not certified.
Q: Do all processors need to be certified?
Any institution that handles credit card information is required to be PCI certified. However, some providers will portray themselves as ‘processors’ but are simply reselling someone else’s services. These resellers are technically not required to be certified since they are not doing any of the processing and settlements themselves. Some sales offices will even blur the lines by trying to claim that they are certified through their processing “partner”, while never admitting that their own systems have not been approved by Visa and MasterCard.
Q: How do I check if my provider is on the list?
It only takes about 30 seconds to find out! Below is a link to Visa’s world-wide list of PCI Level-1 certified providers. Simply load the PDF document and search for your provider:
Visa CISP List: http://usa.visa.com/download/merchants/cisp-list-of-pcidss-compliant-service-providers.pdf
Q: What if this provider is not on the list?
If your provider is not on the list, then they are either a reseller or are not compliant. Merchants you should be careful about what sensitive information they are willing to provide and should deal with organizations that take the safekeeping of personal information seriously.