Best Practices for Accepting Government Purchase Cards (GPC)

When it comes to accepting Government & non-government purchase (GPC) & commercial cards implement these best practices to keep your business competitive, compliant while controlling your costs.

Implemented properly your cost for accepting
Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business-to-Government (B2G), Government Purchase Card (GPC)
transactions should be Under 1.86%.

Include Level-3 Payment Detail: – To encourage merchant participation
and support of this program, Visa and MasterCard created special
interchange rates that reduce interchange by 30%-40% allowing vendors
reclaim a large percentage of processing margins.

Do not use credit card terminals: Credit card terminals are not
capable of supporting the additional requirements for level 3. Using a
terminal results in 30%-40% higher interchange rates before your
processor adds their fee.

Use a Level-3 Processing capable virtual terminal,
preferably a web based solution to prevent customers sensitive credit
card data from being stored on your local PC’s.

Enter a zip code for keyed transactions: Chances are you’ve paid more
than you should for your keyed or interchange transactions by
triggering an interchange reclassification for skipping the zip code
field. Standard, EIRF and Non-Qualified listed on your statement are
indications of these culprits.

FYI, when your set up properly a zip code “match” is not required but
does have to be entered.

Auto Settle/Batch: Make sure you batch or settle your transactions
daily. Visa and MasterCard require transactions be settled within
24 hours if you swipe transactions and 48 hours if you key or process via
the internet. Transactions not settled within this time frame will
cause everything in this batch to downgrade.

Pre Authorization: If you perform pre-authorization’s make sure the
settled amount equals the pre authorization otherwise it will result
in reclassifying the transaction to downgrade. Pre authorizations
also need to be settled in 24 hours for swiped and 48 hours for keyed
& internet transactions.

Cost Plus Pricing: Insist on cost plus pricing, otherwise you will be
unable to receive all the incentive rates available. This pricing
method will process your credit card transactions at their respective
interchange rate, with only a small fee added on top. Interchange is
the base rate for each type of credit card issued by Visa, MasterCard
and Discover.

Since interchange is the same regardless of the
processor you choose, it makes it easy to compare one processor from
the next since the only thing that changes is the processors markup.

Work with an experienced Level-3 Payment Consultant:
Setting up a merchant account to accept commercial and government
cards is much different than a standard retail account.

Knowing what determines your rates and
the fees that impacting your bottom line cost, help you make more
informed decisions when choosing a processing partner.

Have questions about your business? We’d love to hear from you

Sean Jones

Revolution Payments

888-790-3450

sean@revolution-payments.com

Revolution Payments is a is a full-service payment provider of electronic transaction processing services for
(B2B) business-to-business and (B2G) business-to-government

merchants with over 20 years’ experience.

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