11/30/2011
Merchant statements soon to reveal who gets savings from lower debit Interchange.
Next week, most merchants will get their second chance to see if they saved money on their card processing fees due to the Fed’s mandated lower debit rates that took effect October 1st. Typically merchants receive monthly statements at the beginning of each new month showing both processing activity and how fees were applied. Some merchants don’t open their statements and many merchants don’t understand how to read them when they do, but clearly if there was ever a statement to pay attention to, it would be the November statement that’s about to be delivered.
Merchant service providers are not required to directly pass the reduced rates of the Fed regulated debit transactions (and the associated savings) on to the merchants they process transactions for. The Fed’s rule lowered the debit Interchange rate, yet Interchange is only one component of the discount pricing schedules merchants pay to process transactions.
So the yet unanswered question is will YOUR merchant service provider pass all, some or none of the savings on to you? The answer awaits you when you open your November statement.
At an industry level I believe we can go ahead and make an educated guess as to the answer to this question now. And the answer is… it depends.
If your processor is one of the few already actively promotes an Interchange pass through pricing model and works to educate merchants on how to best manage Interchange qualifications like North American Credit Card Association does, then yes, chances are that you will see the all the savings available.
If you are not sure you may fax us your November statement at 203-622-1238 or e-mail me [email protected] for a no obligation free analysis of your statement and processing fees.