Visa Is Secretly Conducting Onsite Surveys And Issuing $5,000 Fines

​Visa has implemented a process of conducting on-site audits of businesses through the use of secret shoppers. This is to determine if you are in violation of the Visa Core Rules and Visa Product Rules (collectively, “Visa Rules”). The audits are intended to determine, if you are...

1) assessing a surcharge on debit card Transactions and/or prepaid card transactions, or 2) imposing a minimum transaction amount as a condition for honoring a Visa debit card or prepaid card, among other type violations. These actions as described above are not allowed under the Visa Rules and were the subject of previous Visa audits. If a secret shopper has already visited your location, audits will continue to ensure ongoing compliance.

What you can do to help ensure your compliance:

Surcharging.
Please note that surcharging is not permitted by Visa, Mastercard, or Discover on prepaid cards or debit cards (even if run as credit).

ACTIONS NEEDED:

1. Cease surcharging when a debit card or prepaid card is used by the customer.
2. Cease surcharging when a credit card is used unless you have already completed the Visa notification process. If you have not previously notified Visa of surcharging where a credit card is in use, please complete the Visa notification process.
3. You may still continue to offset your fees by implementing a compliant system that will automatically offer dual pricing based on the tender type. Please ask us for more information.

Minimum or Maximum Transactions.
Establishing a Minimum Transaction Amount as a condition for honoring a Visa debit card or a prepaid card is a compliance violation of Visa Rules — Prohibition of Minimum or Maximum Transaction Amount.

Minimum Transaction Amounts are permitted on credit card transactions only. If applied to credit card transactions, you must adhere to the following requirements:

1. Minimum Transaction Amount must not exceed $10.
2. Minimum Transaction Amount must not discriminate between issuers (the entity that issues the credit card), or discriminate between Visa and other card brands and networks such as American Express and Mastercard.
3. Card used must be a credit card. Cannot be applied to debit cards even if the customer swipes or uses the chip. A debit card cannot be treated like a credit card no matter how the customer uses it to make a payment.

ACTIONS NEEDED:

1. Cease applying Minimum Transaction Amounts to transactions where a debit card is used by the customer.
2. Card used must be a credit card. Cannot be applied to debit cards even if the customer swipes or uses the chip. A debit card cannot be treated like a credit card no matter how the customer uses it to make a payment.

IMPORTANT:
Visa intends to continue verifying that you remain in compliance with the Card Brand Rules.

Visa will assess non-compliance fines of $5,000.00 which may cause a financial strain to your business.

Merchants with a history of prior violations, or continued non-compliance, will be subject to increased fines per occurrence with first level fines between $5,000.00-$25,000.00 per location and potential termination of service with their processor.

Note: Should any repeat violations be discovered during these audits, Non-Compliance Assessments will be imposed immediately by Visa and no time will be provided to remediate for fine avoidance. It is very important to understand the rules and abide by them going forward.

As your partner in payments, we look forward to working closely with you to resolve any of your non-compliance issues in a timely manner.