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By uniformly assessing a set customer service fee across all products and payment types, merchants utilizing the Free Processing program meets the standard regulations set forth by all major card service providers, state law and federal law. As part of our regular standard list product pricing a small service fee (much like an automatic service gratuity applied in some dining locations) is assessed on ALL sales regardless of how payment is made including checks, cash, credit-debit cards, gift cards, etc.

 

As stated in the Durbin Amendment (part of the 2010 Dodd-Frank law) businesses are permitted to offer a discount to customers as an incentive and to encourage customers to pay by alternative methods other than a credit/debit cards including either checks or cash in order to automatically receive a discount which is applied at the time of sale.

 

Under the Durbin Amendment there is no distinction between using a PIN or not and if the card is a bank debit card it is always considered a debit transaction – with or without a PIN number and never would such a transaction be considered a credit sale.

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As of January 27, 2013 several Card industry changes went into effect with regards to the credit card company’s federal class action litigation settlement. The settlement requires Visa and MasterCard to change some rules for merchants who accept their cards, including allowing merchants to “offer discounts to customers who pay with payment forms less expensive than Bank Debit cards”.

 

1. Clear and conspicuous signage is required by law to be displayed at the business entry point and at the point-of-sale to easily and accurately explain the discount program payment options – if a customer “chooses to pay with cash or check the service charge is discounted”.

 

2. The customer service fee or discounted amount must be present on any generated receipts from the transaction. Free Processing software provides customer receipts that clearly outline:

 

• Base cost

• Cash discount

• Total Sale

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Mastercard Regulations:

5.11.1 Discrimination - a Merchant must not engage in any acceptance practice that discriminates against or discourages the use of a Card in favor of another acceptance brand.

5.11.2 Charges to cardholders  - A merchant must not directly or indirectly require any Cardholder to pay a surcharge or any part of any merchant discount or any contemporaneous finance charge in connection with a transaction.

Discount - A merchant may provide a discount to its customers for cash payments.