VISA DEBIT VERSUS VISA CREDIT VERSUS MASTERCARD

[DUFRESNES]

Up to a couple of months ago, we would ask each customer debit or credit.  If they ran a debit, they put i their pin and there wasn't a signature line.  If it  ran it as a credit, they didn't have to put their pin in and they would sign.  Why you ask if this such a big deal.  It means about 400.00 more a month.  A debit card no matter the amount of the sale, it was .25 if it was run as a credit it is a percentage such as 1.78% - 2.5%  I have been on the phone to Key Bank and to 1st Data, emails and etc.  Nobody knows anything about what could have happened except to say that is the way Visa wants it.   I have said do you suppose there will be a class action.  Just one more way to make money for our credit card charges.  According to the people in charge nobody else has this problem but me.  Funny thing Saturday I was at the plant store and I have a Visa Credit Card and it asked me debit or credit. 

[bantar]

I don't ask any questions at all.  My CC terminal is my best friend.  I'm using the FD130 terminal with a remote keypad.   If the card does both Debit and Credit, then it will automatically prompt the customer for a PIN number.  They have to ask me how to run it as credit (so that I can tell them to push the X button to skip Debit and run as credit).   If they don't respond to the machine automatically, I simply say:  It's waiting for your pin (secretly hoping that they will punch it in).

Both January and February were 41% debit transactions by counts and about 40% by amount.  Frankly, I'm surprised by the number of folks that use debit.

It is very likely that the terminal can be programmed with different behaviors or if not, it might be time for an upgrade.  The folks that I got my terminal from were super-helpful with the terminal and programming (they aren't the CC provider).  Maybe you can ask if yours can be programmed with different behavior.  

[DUFRESNES]

Thank you for your response.  This is exactly what I have been saying.  Nobody seems to understand.  They keep saying it is Visa.  I sent your response on to both companies without your name.  Hope that is ok.  I figured on a small month such as February, it made at least $400.00 different and that was on the low side.

[cmc]

We had the same thing happen earlier this year.  It turned out that the terminal we were using had not been properly certified by the credit processor and could not take pin debits as of the date some new regulations went into effect.  Upgrading to a newer terminal solved that problem.  I didn't appreciate the upgrade costs but the new machine defaults to debit without us asking if it is a debit card so the savings have more than offset the upgraded costs.

[Junior]

Why bother with any of that. I use intuit gopayment, 1.6% no matter what the transaction or card type.

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On 4/8/2018 at 9:35 PM, Junior said:

Why bother with any of that. I use intuit gopayment, 1.6% no matter what the transaction or card type.

 If intuit charges 1.6% across the board that is not a bad deal. I think the point of it was that running debit cards will only cost 25 cents to run with the pin vs paying the percent to run credit. However some merchant services charge ONLY .25 cents. If you are doing lets say 20k in card transactions per month that would be $320.00 in fees based off of 1.6% using intuit. Lets say you have a merchant service that lets you do debits a 25 cents, and when customers come to pay, don't ask them for credit or debit, the machine can be setup to assume debit and automatically ask for the pin. If this causes people to just assume it wants a pin and they enter it without asking how to run credit, now you could save hundreds each month by people not using credit and also possibly paying more if they use an amex, discover or rewards card. Again this all depends on the merchant service. Lets say 100 cars per month pay average ticket of 200 were running credit at 1.6% this is $320 per month in fees. If they ran debit at .25 cents, that's $25 per month in fees. $320-$25= $295 per month in savings x12 is $3540 per year in savings. I'd gladly put that in my pocket, haha.