Merchant Payment Account Easy Payment Service

Visa's Easy Payment Service (VEPS) for merchant payment account users enables face-to-face retailers from more than 98 percent of Merchant Category Codes (MCCs) to accept credit cards and other bank cards without the need for a signature and only need to print out a receipt upon a request from the customer.

The VEPS program offers retailers the potential to speed up the check-out process at the point of sale, improve customer satisfaction and provide operating efficiencies for merchant payment account users. It can also help increase customer retention by helping cardholders use their bank cards quickly, securely and easily.

Merchant Payment Account Easy Payment Service Advantages

For qualifying payments, the VEPS program:

• Eliminates the need for card acceptors to obtain a signature.
• Eliminates the transaction receipt requirement, unless specifically requested by the cardholder.
• Eliminates the necessity for retailers to store sales receipts and bans issuers from placing retrieval requests.
• Provides strong chargeback protection against fraudulent transactions and for the receipt requirement.

Which Transactions Qualify

Transactions qualify for the VEPS service if they comply with all of the following criteria:

• The transaction takes place at a qualified merchant payment account user.
• It is a purchase (as opposed to credit) transactions with a valid card.
• It is a card-present environment (for amounts of $25 and lower) or unattended environment ( for $15 and under).
• Payments are authorized.
• Applies to all MCCs except those explicitly excluded (list is provided below).
• All card types are eligible, including magnetic-stripe, chip-and-PIN and proximity payments.
• The POS device must read and transmit unaltered magnetic-stripe, chip, or contactless payment information.
• The information must be transmitted in the authorization message.

Unqualified Merchants

The following business types are not qualified for VEPS:

• Wire Transfer Money Orders.
• Insurance Services.
• Automated Fuel Dispensers.
• Travel Related Arrangement Services.
• Catalog Merchants.
• Combination Catalog and Retail Merchants.
• Outbound and Inbound Telemarketing Merchants.
• Continuity / Subscription Merchants.
• Manual and Automated Cash Disbursements.
• Financial Institutions - Merchandise and Services.
• Betting, including Lottery Tickets, Casino Gaming Chips, Off-Track Betting, and Wagers at Race Tracks.
• Intra-Government Purchases.
• International Automated Referral Service.
• GCAS Emergency Services.
• Intra-Company Purchases.

There are no program registration requirements. If a merchant payment account user is eligible, they should just run the transaction as they normally would, skipping the signature, and offering the sales receipt as an optional service.

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