Honoring Payment Cards

Merchants must honor all valid payment cards of the types they have contracted to accept without discrimination when they are properly presented for payment. The merchant must maintain a policy that does not discriminate among customers seeking to make purchases with a payment card. A merchant that does not deal with the public at large (for example, a private club) is considered to comply with this rule if it honors payment cards of cardholders that have purchasing privileges with the merchant.

A merchant must not refuse to complete a payment card transaction solely because a cardholder who has complied with the conditions for presentment of a card at the point of sale (POS) refuses to provide additional identification information, except as specifically permitted or required by the Associations. A merchant may require additional identification from the cardholder if the information is required to complete the transaction, such as for shipping purposes. A merchant in a country or region that supports use of the Address Verification Service (AVS) may require the cardholder's ZIP or postal code to complete a cardholder-activated terminal (CAT) transaction, or the cardholder's address and ZIP or postal code to complete a mail order, phone order, or eCommerce transaction. A merchant must not refuse to complete an electronic commerce transaction using a payment card solely because the cardholder does not have a digital certificate or other secured protocol.