Spring Release 2008
Summary of Changes

The following information details the changes Visa and MasterCard will implement as part of their Spring 2008 Compliance Release, effective April 4, 2008. This information can help you to determine what effect the changes may have on your business and what action you may want to take to ensure that your transactions are qualifying at the best levels allowed by Visa and MasterCard.

Visa

Visa U.S.A. will expand the current No Signature Required Program for Chargeback Protection to eight new merchant category codes (MCC) and two new CPS programs.

New MCC Codes that will be added to the No Signature Required Program

Transactions that meet the following characteristics will qualify for chargeback protection under reason codes 60 (Requested Copy Illegible or Invalid), 79 (Requested Transaction Information Not Received), and 81 (Fraudulent Transaction – Card Present Environment)

• U.S.A. Domestic Transactions
• Transaction qualified at one of the following CPS Interchange Programs:
• CPS Retail
• CPS Restaurant
• CPS Retail Service Station
• CPS Supermarket
• Transaction amount $24.99 or less

Must be one of the following Merchant Types:

MasterCard

Tax Amount is required for Commercial Card transactions submitted in the U.S. Region for the following 2 interchange programs

• Commercial Data Rate II
• Commercial Face to Face

Today, the tax amount field permits all zeroes. However, MasterCard will implement edits to ensure the total tax amount field follows the following guidelines when a MasterCard Commercial Card transaction is submitted for Commercial Data Rate II and Commercial Face to Face

• Tax amount must equal zero if the Tax exempt Indicator is present
• Tax amount must be in the range of 0.1% - 30% of the transaction amount when the tax exempt indicator is not present with the following exclusions:
• Commercial Cards used at Fuel locations
• Transactions involving the new government/public sector product codes introduced with this release
• Transactions that do not meet the newly defined tax edits will downgrade to the next best interchange rate of Data Rate I

Additional MCC Added to the Quick Payment Service Program

MasterCard is expanding the Quick Payment Service (QPS) Program to include merchant category code 9402, Postal Services-Government – US locations only.

Transactions that meet the characteristics listed below for MCC 9402 will be exempt from chargebacks for reason codes 01 (Non receipt of requested item), 02 (Illegible Item), and 37 (No cardholder authorization)

• Transaction occurred at U.S. merchant location
• Transaction QPS Qualified
• Authorization obtained for the full amount of the transaction
• Transaction amount $25.00 or below
• Transaction was magnetic swiped or contactless
• Merchant must process under one of the following MCC codes and meet the specific transaction conditions (i.e., equal to or less than transaction amount and if applicable obtain authorization for the full amount)