Level 3 Card Processing

Level 3 Card Processing refers to the data supplied on Visa (using the term data level 3) and MasterCard (using the term data rate 3) for B2B transactions which provides line-item detail on a transaction run on a purchasing card. This additional detail allows businesses to monitor purchase card spending in more detail, and results in lower interchange rates for processing transactions which qualify. PhoeniXGate supports level 3 (and level 2) processing on multiple processors.

 

Visa and MasterCard each supports level 2 data as well, which essentially includes additional detail summarizing the invoice data for a transaction but does not include the line-item detail of a level 3 transaction. American Express supports level 2 data, but not level 3.

 

Specific fields vary among card brands, but in general level 2 data contains fields such as tax amount, a tax indicator, customer code or reference number and limited shipping information. Level 3 data builds on this at the line-item detail level to include values such as freight/shipping amount, item description, quantity, product code, unit cost and discount per line-item, as well as a line-item total.

 

Values for the relevant level 2/3 fields may be entered via forms in the virtual terminal when transactions are processed, or supplied as optional data for transactions processed via the PhoeniXGate API. Additionally, PhoeniXGate offers a tool which allows a merchant to configure several static and calculated values to streamline the entry of level 2/3 data for transactions whether they are processed via the virtual terminal or the API.

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Questions about L2 and L3 payment processing? Contact us here!