Visa's Bulletin on Cash Discount

What does Visa's Bulletin on cash discount mean to you?

On October 18,2018 Visa released a bulletin that changed the payment industry immediately and permanently. Visa is addressing the reality that passing on processing fees have become increasingly popular at merchants, "Visa announced, the most common model for cash discounting is NOT compliant with Visa rules and may subject the acquirer to non-compliance action." Now what does it mean if you are Cash Discounting at the POS? Per the VIsa Bulletin " Models that encourage merchants to add a fee on top of the normal price of the items being purchased,then give an immediate discount of that fee at the register if the customer pays with cash or Debit Card, are not compliant with Visa Rules and may subject the acquirer to non compliance action."

I believe we will see that the card brands will enforce action on processors that are providing " Cash Discounting " and merchants will be assessed fines or shut down for non compliance. Now the good news is you can still surcharge but that is state specific.

We can go into surcharging on a different discussion but wanted to get the facts out to you on the stance that Visa is taking.