How vendors and buyers get the lowest fees using Level 3 / Level III Credit Card Processing data

Photon Commerce
4 min readJun 28, 2021
Mobile Payment using Payment Terminal. Picture taken bij Jonas Leupe (www.brandstof.studio) for In The Pocket (www.inthepocket.com)

Level III (or level 3) data refers to providing specific line item details at the time of a purchasing card or government card transaction beyond what is required for consumer card transactions.

This data is incredibly important because including that with your transaction data significantly reduces risk and nets you savings on interchange fees. As a vendor, if you accept a lot of sales from government agencies or corporate purchases where a corporate credit or purchase card is used, inserting level 3 SKU data into the transaction will net you significant cost savings on processing fees.

In order to save money on credit card processing fees, you should ensure that your payment gateway is configured to accept Level III data for sales made with corporate purchase cards and government agency cards. If you sell to a lot of government agencies and corporate customers — and you want to save money on processing fees — this is one of the most important things to consider.

Why should I care about Level 3 / Level III Credit Card Processing?

Level 3 / Level III credit card processing is important because it allows you to receive fee savings by providing more data about the transaction at the time of sale. This can result in lower interchange fees, which means you pay less for processing each transaction. For those who deal with a lot of bulk or volume sales, the savings can be significant.

Some additional benefits of level 3 / level III credit card processing include reduced chargeback rates. Adding level 3 data to your transactions reduces the chance of fraud or unauthorized transactions as well as reduces the risk of chargebacks.

Adding level 3 data to your transactions reduces the chance of fraud or unauthorized transactions as well as reduces the risk of chargebacks.

Eliminating chargeback losses: A chargeback occurs when a customer returns an item they purchased from you and cites fraud or unauthorized use as the reason for the return. These things cost you money and can severely impact your business, but by adding level 3 to your transactions you can eliminate many of these chargebacks entirely and save yourself time and money.

Faster reconciliation:

If your merchant account is set up to receive level 3 data with every transaction, it makes it easier for your merchant services provider to process receipts faster in the event of a dispute or fraud. This can save you time and money in terms of time spent getting paperwork together for a dispute or chargeback.

If your merchant account is set up to receive level 3 data with every transaction, it makes it easier for your merchant services provider to process receipts faster in the event of a dispute or fraud. This can save you time and money in terms of time spent getting paperwork together for a dispute or chargeback. Improved customer service: By providing more information about each transaction, your customers benefit from a better purchasing experience and it can help improve your overall customer service.

By providing more information about each transaction, your customers benefit from a better purchasing experience and it can help improve your overall customer service. More accurate reporting: Level III data is used to provide more accurate reporting of sales in your accounting system as well as for sales tax reporting. This can be especially helpful if you have sales tax reporting requirements that are specific to your industry or state.

Level III data is used to provide more accurate reporting of sales in your accounting system as well as for sales tax reporting. This can be especially helpful if you have sales tax reporting requirements that are specific to your industry or state.

Enhanced product quality control:

Level III data can help you improve the quality control process throughout your business by providing more detailed information about each transaction so that you can track sales more easily. For example, if you have a product that is sold both online and in a brick-and-mortar store, Level III data allows you to track online sales as they come in without having to wait until you run reports and pull information from both locations separately.

Level III data can help you improve the quality control process throughout your business by providing more detailed information about each transaction so that you can track sales more easily. For example, if you have a product that is sold both online and in a brick-and-mortar store, Level III data allows you to track online sales as they come in without having to wait until you run reports and pull information from both locations separately.

Better protection against chargebacks:

It’s often easier for a customer to dispute an online purchase than it is for them to return something that was purchased at a physical store.

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