Today, debit cards are the most used form of electronic payments in the market. Their use is growing every month and more and more places accept debit cards every day. There are a number of ways to accept a debit card. The two most common ways are “online” and “offline”. This simply means that the “online” method involves the card holder keying in their Pin Access Code. The “offline” way of accepting a card is considered to be like credit. The card holder does not need to key in the Pin Access Code. So what’s the difference between the two as far as fees are concerned?
If you are set up with interchange plus pricing then you are receiving direct cost for your debit transaction. With interchange plus pricing, you can simply run a debit card without using a pin number and still benefit from the direct cost of the transaction. Now if you have 3 tiered pricing then you would need to ask the card holder for their pin number, as well as be set up for pin based debit, in order benefit from the lower debit rates.
Most people believe that running a debit card as “online”, or pin debit, transaction makes the funds appear in their account quicker. This is not true. Regardless of how you accept a debit card, the money is batched into your account within the same amount of time. So if you take a pin debit transaction at the same time as a non-pin debit transaction, the funds will be in your account at the same time.
To get more information on how our Debit Processing can work for you, please call our knowledgeable relationship management team at 866-799-8975.