How do I reduce my interchange fees?

Interchange is something that never "goes away", and depending on your industry, it can sometimes be a very large part of your payment acceptance costs. So naturally, every merchant wants to know - how do I reduce interchange? There are several ways:

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• Accept in-person sales whenever possible. In-person rates are always lower on credit cards, typically by about 0.30%. If you're able, you should  always swipe or dip cards instead of keying-in.
   

• If keying sales, enter AVS data. This is important! Rates can climb by 0.50% or more if you fail to enter the customer's address verification information. Even entering the wrong information gets you the lower rates. So don't forget to enter their address.
   

• When accepting business cards, utilize a level 2/3 solution. We write extensively about B2B processing here, but the long-and-short is that you can get massive interchange reductions on many corporate and purchasing cards. Savings can be up to 50% or more on some transactions, see savings here. 
   

• Encourage debit cards, if your average ticket is above $35. Typically, debit costs more for low-average-ticket merchants, whereas it becomes much cheaper for anyone with higher average tickets. There's no hard and fast rule, but if you operate in a higher average ticket environment, debit cards are your friend! Encourage them where possible by offering PIN-debit acceptance and posting signage that you offer PIN verification for your customer's security benefit. Promote the acceptance type of your choice to encourage your customers to follow suit.
   

• Consider zero-cost processing, where costs are passed along to customers. This is a complex topic that we dive into deeply here. Many businesses can choose to pass along processing costs to their customers, thereby saving the 3% - 4% in processing fees they pay every month. Often, clientele are more than willing to absorb this fee, and there are many methods we can utilize to minimize the impact on your business.