Help Articles & FAQ

Rates Vary By Industry Type

RETAIL

face to face vendors

MOTO

mail order or telephone order

ECOMMERCE

all internet based transactions

RESTAURANT

Including quick purchase, small ticket

SUPER MARKET

grocery stores with over 20% perishable

FUEL

gas, propane, incl. pay at pump

HOTEL

motel, lodging with deposit reservations

AUTO RENTAL

advanced deposit 
on reservations

EMERGING MARKETS

education, charity, government, utilities

If you’re not getting 0.27% or 0.51% back on all of your swiped and keyed in signature debit, you’re being robbed!

Where’s My Debit Rebate?

Is your processor keeping yours?

Debit cards are best for merchants

Because Debit cards have a decreased risk of fraud, Issuing Banks give a rebate of about a half percent (0.51%) on all swiped debit cards when used as signature debit (the PIN is not used).

PIN based Debit may have a flat charge (for example capped rate at 79¢ per item) or a capped rate plus a small rate (for example 50¢ per item + 1.00%). Until 2008, PIN debit was always the best way to go. Debit Networks have become very greedy since and now most of them demand a percentage in addition to the transaction fee.

However, when Signature Debit is used and PIN is NOT entered, Processors reduce the normal credit card Discount Rate (base rate) by about half a percent when swiped, or a quarter of a percent when keyed.

This also applies to NSR or No Signature Required debit transactions, which are under $25 and do not require a signature.

This often appears as a Rebate on your merchant statement.

Yet, many Processors do NOT relay this refund to the merchant!

Not only do many Processors keep this rebate without passing it on to Merchants, some actually charge MORE for it!

How to determine debit rebates

The actual rebates given for Debit transactions depends on your industry.

If you’re a Face-to-Face Merchant (Card Present), here are your rebates for swipe are better:

Card Present Debit Rebate

• Visa 0.51 %
• MasterCard 0.53 %
• Discover 0.54 %

Keyed in Debit cards, like all keyed in/card not present (CNP) transactions have a higher rate. Because the cardholder is not necessarily present in front of you, there is an increased risk of fraud. So you pay a higher fee, and rebates are reduced.

Card Not Present Debit Rebate

• Visa 0.25 %
• MasterCard 0.25 %
• Discover 0.25 %

Finding debit rates on your bill

Rebates may not appear as a separate item on your Merchant Statement. It may show up simply as a Debit credit with a negative fee value, OR your Statement may simply show your Debit cards with the rebate included in the rate.

You’ll be able to determine this because your Debit Rates should be lower than your rate for base credit card rates. (Could be shown as the Qualified or Checkcard rate on a Tiered statement or your base Discount Rate.

This merchant is clearly NOT receiving a debit discount or rebate because the debit rate (2.91%) is the same as the credit rate (2.91%).

Example: If your Retail statement shows basic (qualified) transactions at 2.50%, a Visa Debit card should show up as 1.99% if swiped (present) or 2.25% if keyed, unless the rebate is shown elsewhere on the Statement.