Level II / Level III Processing
Enhanced transaction data submitted with B2B card payments that qualifies for lower interchange rates. Level II saves 0.3–0.5%; Level III saves up to 1%.
Standard consumer card transactions transmit basic data: amount, merchant, date. Level II and Level III processing transmit additional data fields that Visa and Mastercard use to categorize B2B transactions into lower interchange categories.
Level II data includes: sales tax amount, customer code, and merchant postal code. Required for purchasing and corporate cards to qualify for the Level II interchange rate, which is typically 0.3–0.5% lower than the standard business card rate.
Level III data includes everything in Level II plus detailed line-item data: product descriptions, quantities, unit prices, commodity codes, and more. Level III qualifies for the lowest available interchange on purchasing cards, with savings that can reach 0.8–1.0% compared to standard business card rates.
For B2B merchants that regularly accept corporate purchasing cards, government cards, or fleet cards, implementing Level II/III can reduce interchange costs by thousands of dollars per month at meaningful volume. The setup requires a gateway or POS system that supports the additional data fields, and not all do by default.
If more than 20% of your volume comes from business cards, corporate cards, or government-issued cards, ask your processor about Level II/III qualification. Most merchants eligible for these savings aren't receiving them.
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