It is important for businesses to understand about regulated and unregulated debit. For a long time, merchants have urged Congress to regulate interchange or swipe fees that can issuers and financial institutions charge them when customers use credit cards. Accordingly, retailers wish was granted through the passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2010.
The difference between regulated and unregulated debit is actually easy to understand. However, it is difficult to determine how it will affect the processing costs, and that is where BinBase.com comes in.
Regulated Debit
Initially, debit fee was 1.190%+$0.10. After the Durbin Amendment, the regulated debit for merchant card processing fee is now 0.05%+$0.21.A regulated interchange fee covers PIN, signature, and transactions for both present and not present cards.
The Durbin Amendment established that a card issuing bank is regulated if their assets exceed $10 billion. Notably, regulated debit has consistent fees structures, irrespective of how a transaction is processed (signature of pin-based).
Unregulated Debit
The fee for unregulated debit for merchant processing is 1.60%+$0.05. The debit interchange fee can differ depending on the merchant category code, size of the transaction, and other factors, such as processor's fee and rate and whether a card is present or not. In unregulated debit, caps are set and approved through agreements between card networks and large-interest groups.
The Durbin Amendment established that if a card issuing bank is non-regulated (non-exempt), then their assets are less than $10 billion. Unregulated transactions have varying fee structure that are directly affected by how a transaction is processed. In effect, merchants are affected since they pay different fees based on the bank issuing the debit card.
BinBase.com Can Help Retailers Get the Best Debit Rates
Based on the above explanations, it is evident that merchant will require time and understanding of each business use case. They require details about the type of card being used (regulated or unregulated debit) and the size of a merchant to determine the actual costs. To avoid this hassle, retailers can work with a knowledgeable and ethical partner to easily identify the type of card used and to determine whether it is regulated or not.
BinBase.com analyzes the debit card numbers using an electronic system that automatically reviews a card's bank identification number (BIN) to identify details about the card and the issuer. In other words, we offer clients with a lookup service for establishing regulated and unregulated debit for merchant processing.
BinBase.com has a database with hundreds of thousands of BIN records from a series of card brands and categories for over 200 countries. The details are displayed in an easy to understand format shown below. Evidently, each record in the extended BIN Database from BinBase.com contains 14 fields, separated by a semicolon, as shown below:
432733;VISA;METABANK;DEBIT;BUSINESS;UNITED STATES;US;USA;840;HTTPS://WWW.METABANK.COM/;1.866.550.6382;;COMMERCIAL;N
- "432733" - BIN,
- "VISA" - Card Brand,
- "METABANK" - Issuing Organization,
- "DEBIT" - Type of Card (DEBIT, CREDIT, or CHARGE CARD),
- "BUSINESS" - Category of Card,
- "UNITED STATES" - issuing country ISO name,
- "US" - issuing country ISO A2 code,
- "USA" - issuing country ISO A3 code,
- "840" - issuing country ISO number,
- "HTTPS://WWW.METABANK.COM/" - issuing organization website,
- "1.866.550.6382" - issuing organization phone number,
- Reserved for PAN length,
- "COMMERCIAL" - defines if the BIN is PERSONAL or COMMERCIAL,
- "N" - defines if the BIN is regulated or non-regulated.
From the above database structure, a combination of parameters 4 and 14 can help distinguish between regulated and unregulated debit BINs. If a type is "Debit" for parameter 4 AND flag is "Y" for parameter 14, then the BIN is a debit regulated BIN.
Business should not assume that accepting debit cards will result in the best rates for credit card processing. You can read my complete BinBase review.