Posts Tagged ‘government payment processing’

No less than a half a dozen tax collectors in Florida have announced they will no longer accept Visa  since May. Their credit card processor has told them Visa will no longer allow them to accept credit cards and assess a fee back to their citizens.  Visa DOES allow a convenience fee to be assessed back but has specific regulations for both online and in-office transactions.

For ONLINE transactions, that are not tax payments, Visa CAN be accepted with a convenience fe assessed back to the citizen as long as it is a fixed fee regardless of the transaction amount and it is assessed by the city or county …not a third party.  This of course negates about 98% of the online payment scenarios in place because they are run by third parties. Since the convenience fee also must be a FIXED fee and the transaction costs assessed by MasterCard and Visa are percentage based, having a fixed fee is only feasible when you have a good handle on the average transaction amount…like utility bills.

For in office tax payments, Visa can also be accepted with a convenience fee assesed to the citizen, however, certain conditions must be met.  First, the convenience fee must be submitted and processed as a separate transaction and secondly, Visa consumer debit cards must have a “different” incentive convenience fee.  To do this automatically requires an investment in technology that most companies have not and may not be wiling to take.

To add to this conundrum, Tax Collectors in Florida often collect DMV payments in their offices and Visa presently does not allow a convenience fee to be assessed on these payments.

The bottom line is Visa does allow a convenience fee under certain conditions.  these conditions may require special technology from uour solutions provider…make sure you ask.