Utility Interchange Rates Can Provide Huge Savings
Visa, MasterCard, and Discover offer incredibly low interchange rates to businesses that provide waste management or utility services. These special rates are called the utility interchange rates, and they can help to reduce your monthly credit card processing fees by up to 70%.
​
To receive the utility interchange rates your business must be approved for a Utilities merchant account.
​
Setting up a Utilities merchant account requires that your business is classified with the correct eligible MCC code, and your business must be registered with Visa with valid Merchant Verification Value (MVV).
​
These requirements are handled by your merchant account provider, so it's crucial to work with a provider that has the knowledge and expertise to correctly set up a Utilities merchant account so that your business can reap the benefits.
Does My Business Qualify
If your business provides ANY of the following services, you're eligible for a Utilities merchant account:
​
-
Waste Disposal & Waste Management Sevices
-
Residential Trash Collection
-
Container Rentals
-
Roll-off Services
-
Water / Gas / Electric Distribution or Generation Services
-
Sanitary Utility Services
INTEGRATIONS
WHAT ARE THE UTILITY INTERCHANGE RATES
The most important thing to understand about a Utilities merchant account is that you do not pay a percentage discount rate on the credit and debit card payments you process. Instead, you only pay a flat, per transaction fee.
​
Example: If your business processes a Visa consumer credit card payment in the amount of $500.00, you will only pay a $0.75 transaction fee on that sale.
​
Typically you would pay a discount rate of between 1.5% to 2.5% plus a transaction fee. But with a Utilities merchant account, there are NO percentage rates; you only pay the flat, per transaction fees listed below:
​
Visa
Debit-$0.65
Credit - $0.75
Rewards - $0.75
Signature - $0.75
Commercial - $1.50
MasterCard
Debit - $0.45
Credit - $0.65
Rewards - $0.75
World - $0.75
Commercial - $1.50
Discover
Debit - $0.75
Credit - $0.75
Rewards - $.75
Commercial - $1.50